This is an ongoing photographic series intended to celebrate the beauty of native plant species and to encourage conservation of these species and their natural habitats.

Flowers, bugs, and critters all fascinate me, especially when they aren’t strangers. I like to make their acquaintance, to know a little about their family and where they came from. I like to be able to investigate their interactions with each other and with their environment. Ilike to see both their ugly parts and their beautiful parts. Native species are my favorites. They often hide the most gorgeous little flowers you’ve ever seen - all in a plant that few people would have ever stopped to look at.

I’m an avid (some might say rabid) conservationist. I don’t want to lose a single species more than we have already lost. It’s a hopeless cause, I know, but trying our best will at least reduce the number of species lost! In vast areas of the United States, wedon’t even know what the vegetation was like before our ancestors moved in—the native plants have been long gone in most of our populatedareas. Humans bring along their favorite plants and animals wherever they go, for food and for enjoyment as well; weeds and pest animals frequently manage to tag along uninvited, and both the intentional and unintentional transplants have often competed fiercely with the native species for space and resources. This competition is made more critical by the rate at which natural habitat is being lost worldwide to human development. One response to these problems is to celebrate the beauty and diversity still to be found in native species of plants. Others are to learn to use some native plants in your garden and encourage the planting of native species on public lands, and to support the conservation organizations that work to save natural habitats and promote native species, such as The Nature Conservancy, Natural Resources Defense Council, California Native Plant Society, The Wilderness Society, or Conservation International.

To see more of the flowers from this series, please visit my personal website, Saelon's Studio.

Saelon Renkes