Subject: Tom Parker

• An Inconvenient Plant

  One of the world's rarest plants grows in the Presidio. Plans are under way to save it — and ax thousands of trees in the process.

  April 16, 2008

• Riff Raff

  February 5, 1997

• 'Extinct' Plant Discovered -- Right In Middle of Doyle Drive Highway Path

  © California Academy of SciencesThe incredibly rare Franciscan Manzanita​A pair of the state's foremost experts in manzanita plants have weighed in that the bush recently uncovered during the Doyle Drive project is a living specimen of the Franciscan Manzanita -- a discovery akin to stumbling across a Dodo or Passenger Pigeon. The plant was last seen in the wild in 1947, when legendary local botanist James Roof ran in front of a platoon of bulldozers to grab a few samples of the bushes just b

  November 17, 2009

• Rats Fire = Salvation of California Plant

  Joe EskenaziGrowing manzanitas takes a green thumb -- and rodents​These are heady times indeed for the scientists who crawl through the dirt to study the short, sprawling plant species that all but exclusively calls California home -- the manzanita. Yesterday we reported that two of the state's top experts have weighed in that the plant until recently hidden for half a century or more by weeds and the Doyle Drive highway is a Franciscan Manzanita. Genetic tests are pending -- but it seems this

  November 18, 2009

• Could Discovery of 'Extinct' Plant Toss Monkey Wrench Into Doyle Drive Rebuild?

  © California Academy of SciencesThe Franciscan Manzanita​The other day we reported on the apparent discovery of a Franciscan Manzanita in the Presidio -- the first wild specimen of the native San Franciscan plant spotted since 1947. But, in a development that appears to be ironic -- without any mention of diabetics being flattened by insulin trucks -- the manzanita is smackdab in the middle of the planned route for the billion-dollar Doyle Drive redesign.  According to Al Donner, an assi

  November 19, 2009