Steve Grund, senior botanist, recently retired after 29 years with the Natural Heritage Program at the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy. Steve joined WPC in 1996 and began serving on the PA Biological Survey Vascular Plant Technical Committee, where he assisted with making important decisions for plant conservation in Pennsylvania. He helped to develop the official list of rare, threatened and endangered species for Pennsylvania.

Many young botanists have benefited from Steve’s vast knowledge of plants and their distributions, taxonomy and nomenclature. At Carnegie Museum of Natural History, where he became a research associate in 2000, Steve worked with the herbarium collection, reviewing and annotating archived plant specimens so future generations have access to the most current understanding of Pennsylvania flora.

With a primary focus on globally rare plants species, Steve spent long hours in the field conducting inventories and documenting rare plant populations. He conducted aquatic and emergent plant surveys at all nine natural lakes in Western Pennsylvania, one of which, Lake Pleasant, is now under WPC protection. He spent countless hours detailing small subpopulations of plant species of the Appalachian Riverscour along the Youghiogheny River.

Steve’s keen eye for plant diversity led to the discovery of two new species to the state, the once federally endangered running buffalo clover (Trifolium stoloniferum), and a tiny single-leaved orchid called Bayard’s Malaxis (Malaxis bayardii).

Steve played a large role in establishing the Pennsylvania Botany Symposium as a founding member of the Steering Committee. He now serves on its Board of Directors.

We wish Steve the best in his retirement and thank him for his contributions to the field of botany, his kindness, his willingness to always share his extensive knowledge…and for his endless supply of sometimes funny—but always enthusiastically presented—jokes.