What's growing in your backyard?

In San Diego, one of America's most biodiverse regions, the answer is more complicated than you might think. It's home to roughly 3,000 plant species, with many still undocumented.

This episode follows hikers, students and nature lovers using the free app iNaturalist to photograph plants and animals, contribute to a global biodiversity database and help scientists protect fragile ecosystems. Some discoveries are extraordinary, like seeing your name on a scientific paper after spotting a plant never recorded in the county before.

We visit the San Diego Natural History Museum, head into a rare salt marsh along Mission Bay and join a community identification party to see how this grassroots effort is reshaping science in real time.

Researchers and volunteers say this kind of "citizen science" is no longer a side project — it's essential. Because when it comes to protecting ecosystems, the first step is simple: knowing what's there.

Guests:

•  Jon Rebman, Ph.D., curator of botany at SDNHM
• Becky Escalante, citizen scientist spifferella on iNaturalist, dental assistant
• Stephanie Crawford, citizen scientist aneclecticenthusiast on iNaturalist
• Kellie Uyeda, executive director of UC San Diego's Natural Reserve System
• Clarissa Rodriguez, reserves director of UC San Diego's Natural Reserve System