By Chaplain Grady "Irish" O'Shucks

SAN FRANCISCO -- Members of a Golden Gate Park plant-lovers club are charging bias due to the inability of the group to gain recognition by a national horticultural society. Members of the Young Men’s Botany Club say they are being discriminated against by the U.S. Horticultural Association, and are planning to file a federal bias suit unless they are officially recognized.

The Young Men’s Botany Club has been a fixture on the Golden Gate Park scene for the past 20 years. The club holds nightly meetings in the west end of the park, in the vicinity of Murphy’s Windmill. On any given evening dozens of members can be seen closely perusing the flora of the area and consulting with each other on the different species of plants found in the area.

Botany club members believe that official USHA recognition would give them the cachet they need to start a major recruitment drive on the City’s west side. The club has applied for membership in USHA on several different occasions, but each time its application has been rejected, a series of setbacks that club members charge is due to discrimination.

"We’ve erected something in the park that is a loving, beautiful thing, yet certain people still refuse to accept us because of their closed minds," according to Biff Masterson, botany club chair. "It’s very sad, in this day and age."

USHA officials are quick to reject the allegations. Association president Bob Greenlaw said the Young Men’s Botany Club has been turned down for membership because the group has yet demonstrate a serious commitment to botanical research.

"This group has been in existence for 20 years, yet there’s not a single publication to its credit anywhere," Greenlaw said. "To be honest, I’d really like to know what they’ve been doing out there in the bushes all this time."

Greenlaw also rejected the charges of bias, noting the Botany Club’s all-male membership.

"For a group that doesn’t have a single female member, charging us with discrimination really takes the cake," he said.