Not many people would put moss at the top of their gift wish list, but Biology department technician Donald Agostinelli would love to get his hands on one particular variety.
Agostinelli oversees the department’s greenhouses next to Mendocino Hall, making sure all its 2,500 plants are watered, fertilized and comfortable at just the right temperature and humidity.
There are three greenhouses. One features a wide variety of plants from temperate and tropical climes. A second boasts a number of cacti and other flora from drier climates. And the third is used for research by graduate students.
The selection runs from the simple to the complex. “We start with blue-green algae and work right up to flowering plants,” Agostinelli says.
The facility is tops in its field when it comes to providing plants for student observations and experiments. “It’s a pretty good teaching collection,” Agostinelli says, as he wends his way around tables of flowers, through hanging vines and past towering bushes. A pallet of tree cuttings he passes may eventually make it to Sacramento State’s arboretum.
Agostinelli has always been interested in plants. He started out working in a commercial nursery, then joined SMUD as a tree trimmer and construction worker. He believes his combined experience with plants, construction and heating and air conditioning systems helped him win the job almost 26 years ago.
He much prefers working with plants than animals. “They don’t bite, they don’t fly off when you try to count them, they just stay there,” Agostinelli says.
And, yes, the assortment does feature the exotic, including a room of insect-eating plants such as Venus flytraps, a highlight of grade-school tours. “When little kids come here, that’s the first thing they want to see,” Agostinelli says.
But, as with any collection, it’s never quite complete. Acknowledging that it may sound a bit unusual to some people, Agostinelli says he would really like to get a sample of a specific moss that is found in Australia and Asia. First-year botany students are taught that moss doesn’t grow more than 6 inches tall because it doesn’t have a vascular system, Agostinelli says. This moss, though, grows up to four feet.
“It would be wonderful to have those kinds of things,” he says. “Things like that are still a challenge to me.”
About the writer:
Sacramento State’s Craig Koscho can be reached at ckoscho@csus.edu
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