Plants, The First Three Billion Years: A Reflection on the Nature of Evolutionary History will be the first of this year’s Director’s Lecture Series at the Arnold Arboretum on Monday, January 14 at 7 pm at the Hunnewell Building of the Arnold Arboretum, 125 Arborway in Boston.

Plant biodiversity. How did it all begin? And what are some of the key evolutionary twists and turns that have deposited us into a world teaming with photosynthetic life? William “Ned” Friedman, Director of the Arnold Arboretum and an evolutionary biologist, will explore how lunch for a unicellular organism inadvertently laid the groundwork for the first plants, and how they then went on to produce exquisitely beautiful multicellular photosynthetic lineages dozens of times, only one of which made it out of the water and onto land 475 million years ago.  Free, but registration requested at 617-384-5277, or email Pam Thompson at pam_thompson@harvard.edu.