Ethan skuches

• Spring/ Summer 2026

  Range wide leaf collection. The field season is full of leaf collection! From Alabama to Montreal, my awesome undergrad interns and I were out and about collecting leaves from mature/ fruiting blackgum to extract DNA and conduct whole genome sequencing. Here’s a map of current leaf collections across the range. We’re hoping to fill in the gaps in the range via herbarium specimen sampling and additional field collections in Summer 2027.

  

• Fall 2026

  Range wide seed collection. Oh boy! Time for lots of seed collection & cleaning. Unfortunately, I can’t be everywhere at once. Want to help? Please read below (How to get involved)! Would love some help (please please please).

• Fall/ Winter 2026

  • DNA extraction & sequencing of leaf samples.
  • Seed cleaning & sowing!
• Spring 2027

  DNA analysis, filling in some holes in leaf collection & herbarium sampling.

• Summer 2027

  Keeping common garden plants alive!

The below resources were created by me (Ethan!) on Canva. Please feel free to share/ utilize these to learn more about this sweet tree!

I’m eager and interested in partnering with anyone who would love to help out with any of this work. I’m a firm believer that science is built on collaboration and would love to engage as many folks as possible with this work. Below I’ve listed some opportunities for getting involved!

Help out with seed collection Fall 2026!

I’m looking for folks across the native range of blackgum, or wherever it may be occurring in the wild (see below maps) to do some seed collection for me this fall. The process is pretty simple, if you know of blackgum that’s producing fruit near you and you’d love to collect some fruit for the common garden I’ll be doing, please fill out this interest form.

Once you fill out the interest form, I’ll reach out asking for a lil bit more information (if you can send pics of the trees, post them on iNat, a form for collection), and then once the fruit ripens or begins to, I’ll mail you a freezer box. Once you recieve the box, ideally you’ll collect the fruit, and on the same day mail it back to me overnight. All postage and packaging will be covered by me, I just need you to collect seeds and send them my way! See the below document for some more information.

1. Why black tupelo?
   • I think of blackgum (tupelo, etc) as a bit of a swiss army knife of a tree. It can do everything a red maple can do, slightly worse, but it can live ~400 years longer! It’s planted all over, it has high wildlife and human value, and it’s been noitceably migrating north in response to climate change. It’s also pretty underrated. Let’s show some appreciation for our funky trees!
2. What’s a common garden?
   • A common garden is a genetically diverse, planted monoculture. Essentially, you take populations from all over a plant’s range and grow them out in the same location/ same environment. In doing this, you’re removing any environmental variables influencing how a plant grows, and now you’re just looking at genetics at play. Common gardens can be incredibly valuable in informing management and movement decisions of plants.
3. What is assisted migration?
   • Assisted migration is a (non novel) climate adaptation strategy that involves the intentional movement of plants to new locations in repsonse to climate change.
   • Inherently anticipatory, moving plants to an area better suited for a predicted climate.
   • This is not a novel idea– people have been moving plants since people have existed.
     • Often for cultural significance, moving along trade routes, etc.
     • Plant hitchhikers
     • Ornamental plant trade