Lorence (Loren) R. Oki Ph.D.

UC Cooperative Extension Specialist in Environmental Horticulture

Dr. Oki has been a member of the faculty at UC Davis since 2002 and serves as the Cooperative Extension Specialist in Environmental Horticulture. This appointment is with the Department of Plant Sciences (80%) and the Landscape Architecture Program in the Department of Human Ecology (20%). He is Co-Director of the UC Nursery and Floriculture Alliance that provides outreach and technical training to greenhouse and nursery growers. He is also Co-Chair of the UC ANR Nursery & Floriculture Workgroup, a member of the California Department of Food and Agriculture Nursery Advisory Board, Department of Water Resources Landscape Stakeholder Advisory Group, and serves on the Statewide UC Master Gardener Advisory Committee.

Dr. Oki’s research and outreach activities focus on water issues in greenhouse and nursery production and urban landscapes. His research examines runoff from both nursery and urban sources and evaluates methods to reduce runoff volumes and the pollutants in it. He evaluates the water use of landscape plants to develop information used for urban landscape water budgets, studies the biological treatment of nursery runoff utilizing slow sand and vegetated filters to remove plant pathogens and pesticides so the water can be reused for irrigation, and nitrogen use of plants in nursery production systems. He also teaches the class: ENH 120, Container Media Management.

Dr. Oki’s Ph.D. is in Ecology (2002) from UC Davis. His dissertation research quantified the effects of salinity on rose stem elongation rates. He also holds an M.S. in Plant Science from UC Riverside (1976) where he worked in plant tissue culture studying the role of chromosomal proteins in cell differentiation. His B.S. in Ornamental Horticulture (1974) is from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. Loren is a third generation member of a nursery family and prior to receiving his doctorate, he worked as a grower at a family nursery and greenhouse in the Sacramento area.