In 1935, Stebbins was offered a genetics research position at the University of California, Berkeley working with geneticist E.B. Babcock. Babcock needed assistance with a large Rockefeller-funded project on the genetics and evolution of plants from the genus "Crepis". "Crepis" commonly hybridized, displayed polyploidy, and could make seed without fertilization (a process known as apomixis). The collaboration between Babcock and Stebbins produced numerous papers and two monographs.