Botany Alumna Finds Passion in Search for California Wildflowers
Naomi Fraga (’02, botany) watches her step carefully as she scopes out the landscape for wildflowers. She is careful not to trample any plants that may be at risk of extinction.
In her role as a botanist with the California Botanic Garden, Fraga has researched countless varieties of plants and even discovered a rare wildflower.
The one-time behavioral studies major once found herself uninspired and longing for a different career path. It wasn’t until Fraga volunteered at the Claremont-based garden that she knew botany was her true calling.
“Once I found botany, it just clicked for me, there was something about the field and the kind of information I was learning that fit with my brain and my interests,” Fraga said.
A Seed Planted
As a first-generation college student, Fraga lacked guidance and yearned for mentorship. At Cal Poly Pomona, she met her academic advisor and, later, senior project advisor, Curtis Clark, who inspired her to pursue her dream further.
He advised her to pursue a role at the CPP Herbarium, where she helped curate a collection of dried press plants, repair specimens, organize them and enter information into a spreadsheet.
“That helped me get experience that then transferred to my first paid internship at the California Botanic Garden,” Fraga said. “It was the same kind of museum, but at a much bigger institution.”
Her role at the garden consisted of transcribing the different plant information components into a digital database that would eventually be available online to other researchers. This was a new era for botany, a technological advancement that helped many learn about plants with the click of a button.
“Now all that information is available at your fingertips, and you can just do a quick search on the internet and look up any plant species and make a map of where that plant grows in the world,” Fraga said. “You couldn't do that when I first started because none of that information was in a digital database.”
An Unexpected Discovery
Fraga’s journey did not stop at graduation from CPP. She also earned her master’s and PhD in botany at Claremont Graduate University. Her curiosity about plants and her desire to explore natural environments for endangered plant species continued throughout her education, helping her land a full-time position at the California Botanic Garden.
In 2012, Fraga stumbled upon a rare wildflower, different from any she had seen before. She took it back to the botanic garden and looked at its different components. To her surprise, she could not find it documented in the library of plants — she had just discovered a new species, the Carson Valley monkeyflower.
The annual species occurs in very specific areas, such as deserts, and can be visually identified as a yellow flower with tiny red dots.
Fraga’s desire to work with wildflowers over other plant species can be linked to one specific quality – their beauty.
“They are really beautiful and are essential components of habitats,” Fraga said. “One of the things I finally learned once I became a botanist was how incredibly diverse the plants of California are. It's the place in the United States with the most species of plants compared to any other state, and a large percentage of them are these wildflowers.”
Fraga encourages people who have not explored the nature surrounding them to do so and to familiarize themselves with California native plants.
Plants also are important because they contribute to the recovery of the ecosystem, Fraga said, reflecting on the wildfires affecting Southern California.
Growing Into Her Role
Although Fraga has grown to be a very successful botanist, her path wasn’t always so smooth. Being a woman of color in a predominantly male-dominated field taught her the power of perseverance.
“There definitely have been times where people didn't necessarily believe in me or my abilities, and so I just had to kind of put my head down and work very hard and show people what I could do,” Fraga said. “It was through quiet hard work and also having mentors that were very supportive and helped guide me along the way that eventually I was able to get to where I am today.”
Fraga hopes to be a figure of support for others pursuing her field of work. She encourages students to get a head start and apply to the California Botanic Garden internships available seasonally.
To learn more about these internships, visit calbg.org and navigate to the employment page.