Get to know Ellen Lake

In January, entomologist Dr. Ellen Lake started her new job: Director of Conservation & Research at Mt. Cuba Center. It was a homecoming for her, as she returns to the area where she grew up.

In her new role, she will lead the Delaware botanic garden’s conservation, research, and collections management programs, as well as oversee operations of the trial garden, greenhouse, and natural lands.

Previously, Ellen directed a team of researchers at the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Agricultural Research Service Invasive Plant Research Laboratory in Ft. Lauderdale. It was a chilly relocation, but she’s happy to be home.

“I’m imprinted on the Brandywine and Red Clay Valleys,” she says. “Having the opportunity to protect native habitats in a place I call home is incredibly gratifying.”

NM: How did you become interested in native plants?

EL: When I was about 10 years old my parents signed me up for a summer camp program at the local Nature Center and it all it all snowballed from there, so I spent my summers, you know, playing outside in fields and forests and streams and ponds, and initially, as a kid, the world was green. As I started to learn more and eventually teach some of those programs, I learned that some of those plants didn’t belong. They were taking up space and not performing the same ecological roles and ecosystem services as the natives were. I learned just how problematic the invasive plants were, and how critical the natives were. Those connections and complex ecological relationships were one of the things that interested me most at first, and frankly, are still one of the most fascinating things to me.

NM: I read that you’ve got a thorny relationship with the multiflora rose. Can you tell me what it was like to fight that invader in Southeastern Pennsylvania?

EL: I’ve definitely donated some blood to removing multiflora rose. Yeah, that’s a really nasty one. It can form these really dense monocultures, and it involves a lot of work with leather gloves and loppers to try to remove that and clear the area so that natives can be planted. I helped to assemble those volunteer efforts and native plantings, starting when I was a teenager at the Brandywine and Red Clay Alliance.

NM: What’s your favorite native plant and why?

EL: That’s tough. I’m going to go with a group of plants, the spring ephemerals. They’re such a welcome sign of spring and they have such interesting life histories — needing to flower and reproduce before the tree canopy leafs out. They’re just a group of fascinating plants, and many have really interesting ecology and complex relationships with pollinators and seed dispersers.

NM: What are some research initiatives you’re excited to work on at Mt. Cuba Center?

EL: Well, a lot of my background is in plant/insect interactions, so I’m really looking forward to expanding some of that work here. Building upon the work that’s already being done in the trials and looking at the value of different species and cultivars to pollinators and herbivores and really teasing out the ecological aspect of these relationships.

NM: When you’re not outside studying ecosystems, what’s your favorite TV show or movie to watch?

EL: Well, I’m certainly a fan of the original Star Wars movies, but I also played a lot of sports when I was growing up, so I do enjoy watching sports, particularly the U.S. women’s national soccer team.

For more: www.mtcubacenter.org