About the Author
Barbara Collins is a Professor of Biology at California Lutheran University and has a Ph.D. degree from the University of Illinois. She teaches General Biology for the majors, Microbiology, Environmental Ecology, California Plant Communities, Flora of Southern California, and Wildflowers of the Sierras. She has authored four books on the flora of southern California and six other books on botany and biology. In 1991, she was the winner of the Sears-Roebuck Foundation Teaching Excellence and Campus Leadership Award. In 1996, she was voted Professor of the Year by the Senior Class.
Dr. Collins moved to California in 1959, and since that time has been busy studying the vegetation of southern California. Numerous hours were spent collecting, mounting, and identifying plant specimens and building a herbarium which now houses more than 5,000 plants.
Her first book, Key to Coastal and Chaparral Flowering Plants of Southern California was published in 1972. This book, now in its 3rd edition, was written so that her students and interested lay people could identify plants using an easy key.
In the early 90's, Dr. Collins' husband began accompanying her on field trips and started to photograph the wildflowers, using a Canon camera with a close-up lens attachment. His close-up photos of the plants became an invaluable resource for her classes.
Around the same time, Dr. Collins and her husband began spending summers in the Canadian Rockies, studying and photographing the wildflowers and scenery. In the course of more than 10 years, they have accumulated a large collection of photographs and decided to share the best of them with all people who love the out-of-doors and want to learn more about the wildflowers. By seeing the beauty around us, we are more inclined to preserve it.
The implementation of this website was made possible by the efforts of Kevin A. Collins, Dr. Collins' son, who designed the site. The facilities and expertise of the computer technicians at California Lutheran University have also been utilized.
Dr. Collins may be contacted via email at bcollins@callutheran.edu.