Boston Flora

Month: October 2013

  • Friday, October 4, 6:45 pm – Deer, Forests, and People: Understanding and Managing Socioecological Systems

    The New England Botanical Club will present Tom Rawinski, Botanist, USDA Forest Service, Durham, New Hampshire, on Friday, October 4.  Tom will speak on Deer, Forests, and People: Understanding and Managing Socioecological Systems, beginning at 6:45 pm at Harvard University, Cambridge, in the Haller Lecture Hall (Room 102), Geological Museum, 24 Oxford Street, Cambridge (door to the right of the Harvard Museum of Natural History entrance.)  For information on the New England botanical Club, visit www.rhodora.org. Picture below from www.animalliberationfront.com.

    http://www.animalliberationfront.com/News/AnimalPhotos/Animals_161-170/Deervisitors/deerRasaRamEvaAndFamily1.jpg

  • Friday, October 18 – Sunday, October 20, 10:00 am – 4:00 pm – Fall Orchid Sale

    Celebrate orchid-blooming season Friday, October 18 – Sunday, October 20 at the Lyman Estate Greenhouse, 185 Lyman Street in Waltham. Hundreds of orchid plants are for sale, including many hard-to-find varieties. Visit the greenhouses and enjoy gorgeous floral colors, shapes, and scents. Among the many varieties on display and for sale are cattleyas, laelias, oncidiums, Paphiopedilums, and Phalaenopsis. Their long-lasting blooms make orchids a dramatic addition to any indoor environment. This adaptable species can grow in a variety of home conditions. Staff are on hand to offer expert advice. Historic New England Garden and Landscape members receive a 15% discount on purchases at the greenhouses. Free admission. Please call 781-891-1985 for more information.  Image from www.flowerpicturegallery.com.

    http://www.flowerpicturegallery.com/d/3656-2/tiger+paterns+cattleya+orchid+flowers.jpg

  • Tuesday, October 8, 7:30 pm – Queens, Potential Queens, and Temporary Workers in a Tropical Paper Wasp Species

    The next meeting of the Cambridge Entomological Club  will be held on Tuesday, October 8 at 7:30 PM in in room 101 of the Museum of Comparative Zoology, 26 Oxford Street in Cambridge. Shantanu Shukla will present a talk entitled “Queens, potential queens, and temporary workers in a tropical paper wasp species”.

    Ropalidia marginata is a primitively eusocial wasp from southern and south-eastern Asia. Queens and the workers are morphologically similar, and reproductive castes are flexible. Queens are the sole egg layers in the colony, but workers retain the capacity to fully develop ovaries and become queens. What distinguishes this species is that the queen is not the dominant female, but is meek and docile. How then does the queen maintain her reproductive dominance? How does the colony regulate its maintenance and care? If workers are capable of becoming queens, why don’t they do so?  Dr. Shukla will demonstrate how he has used behavioral experiments to elucidate the mysteries of these complex and fascinating social insects.

    The meeting is free and open to the public. Snacks will be provided and you are also welcome to join us at 6:00 PM for an informal pre-meeting dinner at Cambridge Common. Image below from www.treknature.com.

    http://i1.treknature.com/photos/13984/paper-wasp.jpg

  • Thursday, October 3, 6:30 pm – 8:00 pm – Nonlinear Encounters: Emergence in Landscape Architecture

    As emergence theory is invoked and “operationalized” in a wide range of projects and studios, cities are becoming adaptive in ways they never were before. But the concepts mobilized by systems thinking require us to reexamine the very nature of our human encounter with the world, whose complexities are not often considered in landscape architecture. With the aid of key concepts of emergence such as difference, disturbance, and assemblage, this Harvard Graduate School of Design lecture will attempt to situate designers within the systems they intervene in while acknowledging that the systems are within them too. Rod Barnett is a visiting professor of landscape architecture. The Olmsted Lecture is an annual honorific lecture in landscape architecture. It will take place Thursday, October 3, beginning at 6:30 pm in the Piper Auditorium of Gund Hall, 48 Quincy Street in Cambridge, and is free and open to the public.  For more information contact events@gsd.harvard.edu.

    http://www.gsd.harvard.edu/images/content/5/5/v3/558884.jpeg

  • Sunday, October 6, 11:00 am – 5:00 pm – Boston Local Food Festival

    Join Sustainable Business Network of Massachusetts on Sunday, October 6th, 2013 from 11am-5pm for the 4th Annual Boston Local Food Festival.

    For one spectacular day each year, SBN transforms the Rose Kennedy Greenway and the City of Boston into the nation’s largest local & sustainable food hub. Boston Local Food Festival is a free outdoor festival that showcases farmers, local restaurants, food trucks, specialty food producers, fisher folks, and organizations focusing on healthy food and fitness from New England. The festival also features lively chef & DIY demos, a seafood throwdown competition, diverse music and performances, family fun zone and more.

    Festival goers learn about the benefits of sustainably grown and produced food, shop the market, eat delicious local food, participate in fun, educational activities and exhibits, engage with top local chefs and enjoy local music. Themed “Healthy Local Food for All”, the festival connects Massachusetts and New England eaters of all backgrounds with the abundance of fresh, nutritious local food choices available close to home.

    The festival is a zero-waste event, meaning we divert over 91% of our waste each year and we offset 100% of our energy use! All perishable items sold are made from locally sourced products. Best of all, we bring this annual event to the community free of charge. So grab your reusable water bottles and bags and enjoy New England’s largest one day farmers market, while celebrating “Healthy Local Food for All.”  See more at: http://bostonlocalfoodfestival.com/?utm_source=Mural%2C+Pianos%2C+Libraries%2C+and+Service+Opportunities&utm_campaign=8.15.13&utm_medium=email#sthash.UnOBhpMA.dpuf.

    http://dguides.com/boston/files/2011/08/Boston-Local-Food-Festival-2011-500.jpg