Boston Flora

Tag: Arthur Haines

  • Wednesday, February 15, 11:00 am – 12:00 noon – Updates to the New England Flora Live Webinar

    Our understanding of the New England flora is dynamic; plant names change and known distributions are constantly in flux. This New England Wild Flower Society webinar on February 15 from 11 – 12 will examine some of the changes in taxonomy, plant distribution, and conservation that have occurred since the publication of Flora Novae Angliae in 2011. We will discuss a variety of updates, from simple name changes to more complex dismantling of genera. Led by Arthur Haines, the cost is $10 for NEWFS members, $13 for nonmembers. Register online at http://www.newfs.org/learn/our-programs/live-webinar-meadows-101

  • Saturday, October 10, 12:00 noon – 4:00 pm – From Tree to Table

    The acorn has been an important staple for aboriginal people across North America for thousands of years. The people of each region had their preferred species and methods of collecting, storing, and processing this fruit of the oak tree. In this New England Wild Flower Society class on Saturday, October 10 from noon – 4 at Garden in the Woods, you will learn primitive and contemporary methods for gathering and preparing acorns. At the end of class, we will enjoy fresh-cooked acorn-flour pancakes with instructor Arthur Haines. $53 for NEWFS members, $64 for nonmembers. Register online at http://www.newfs.org/learn/our-programs/from-tree-to-table.

  • Saturday, July 11, 10:00 am – 3:00 pm – Mount Kearsarge Plant Hike

    Mount Kearsarge, a monadnock in central west New Hampshire, is approximately 890 meters tall and offers impressive views due to its isolation from other peaks. This day in the field, Saturday, July 11 from 10 – 3, examines the mountain’s natural history with a focus on plant life. Arthur Haines, research botanist, New England Wild Flower Society and author of Flora Novae Angliae, leads this excursion and discusses topics including ecology, edible plants, birding, and geology. Bring a bag lunch, water, a hand lens, and binoculars. Wear proper footwear and clothing. Meet at site to be announced in Warner, New Hampshire. The Fells and NEWFS Members $47, nonmembers $58. Advance registration required. To register, call 603-763-4789 x3. Co-sponsored by the New England Wild Flower Society and The Fells Historic Estate & Gardens.  Photo of bog laurel from 10000birds.com.

     

  • Saturday, April 14, 9:00 am – 2:00 pm – Northern Gardening Symposium

    The New England Wild Flower Society will sponsor the Northern Gardening Symposium on Saturday, April 14, from 9 – 2 at Vermont Technical College in Randolph Center, Vermont, cosponsored by The Fells, Hardy Plant Club, Friends of the Hort Farm, and Master Gardeners. The morning session features landscape designer Judith Irven speaking on “A Sense of Place: Gardens that Celebrate the Natural Landscape.”  New England’s spectacular rural landscape — with its mountains, farms and canopied forest – can inspire gardens that echo this wider world. Landscape architect Ann Milovsoroff then presents “Gardens around the World,” an exploration of contemporary garden design trends gathered from public, private, and exhibition gardens around the world. See images that delight, entice and provide ideas for northern New England gardens. After lunch, there will be a presentation by nationally recognized taxonomist and botanist Arthur Haines on the reasons for and stories behind his newly published Flora Novae Angliae.  Fee is $40 for members of the sponsoring organizations, or $47 for non-members.  To register, visit www.newfs.org, or telephone 508-877-7630.

  • Saturday, December 3, 1:30 pm – 3:30 pm – Flora Novae Angliae

    The New England Wild Flower Society hosts a lecture and book signing with Arthur Haines at Garden in the Woods on Saturday, December 3, from 1:30 – 3:30.  Illustrators Elizabeth Farnsworth and Gordon Morrison will also attend. New England Wild Flower Society is thrilled to announce that after nine years of field, herbarium, and literature study Flora Novae Angliae, a Manual for the Identification of Native and Naturalized Higher Vascular Plants of New England, has been published by Yale University Press.

    This 1,008 page book is the definitive publication for the study and identification of the plants of New England. Join the author for a discussion of the underlying philosophies, a look at some of the research and novel finds on which the manual was written, and discussion of the many collaborators (and their exciting finds) who helped make the book possible. The lecture will present fascinating botanical information pertinent to each state in New England.

    This partly illustrated work presents the latest in nomenclatural, taxonomic, and distribution information for New England’s tracheophytes (i.e., higher vascular plants). The manual makes a departure from its predecessors in several respects. First, well-supported information was incorporated into the text, regardless of how unpopular it may have been viewed. Second, many thousands of herbarium specimens were reviewed to verify not only recent collections but the early ones as well. Third, identification keys were written, where possible, with focus on characteristics that do not display substantial phenotypic (i.e., environmental) variation. And fourth, all hybrid plants that could be verified as part of the New England flora were included (rather than just the well-known or named ones). These underlying philosophies have contributed to building a floristic manual with many substantial changes from earlier works covering the region.

    Arthur Haines stated, “The initial view of this manual may be one of greater complexity, but the goal was simply to write a manual that reflected, as accurately as plant taxonomists understood, our best understanding of the species growing on the New England landscape.”  After the lecture, the author will be joined by the two illustrators, Elizabeth Farnsworth and Gordon Morrison, for a book signing in the Garden Shop at Garden in the Woods.  Please RSVP if you plan to attend the December 3 lecture by calling the registrar at 508-877-7630, ext 3303.

  • Thursday, April 14, 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm – Wild Foods, Nutrition, and Land Conservation

    Land conservation has many obvious benefits — protecting habitats and watersheds, preventing erosion, offering places of beauty and respite. Few of us consider the additional benefit to our health and well-being that derives from the wild, nutrient-dense foods these natural areas can provide. Take a provocative look at agriculture (particularly small-scale) and its effects on the environment and human health in this Thursday, April 14 lecture by Arthur Haines at Garden in the Woods, Framingham, co-sponsored by the New England Wild Flower Society and the Massachusetts Audubon Society, Drumlin Farm. How does clearing the canopy and understory of a natural area affect wild food sources? Do changes in our diet over the past century have a physiological and genetic impact? Appreciating the critical need humans have for wild food provides another powerful argument for the protection of land from uses that drastically alter its ecological function. $20 for members of the sponsoring organizations, $24 for non-members.  Register at www.newfs.org.

  • Friday, September 10 – Sunday, September 12 – New England Botanical Club Field Trip to Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens and Boothbay Region

    Reserve a space now (no later than July 1) for the NEBC Field Trip to the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens and Boothbay Region, Friday, September 10 – Sunday, September 12.

    Highlights of this fabulous trip include a visit to the Kate Furbish “Flora of Maine” art collection at Bowdoin College with Special Collections Curator Richard Lindemann, a trip to the scenic salt marsh at Popham Beach with Arthur Haines, a lobster picnic at Robinson’s Wharf on Southport Island, a ferry ride for an all day excursion to botanize the beaches and coastal headlands of Monhegan Island with Melissa Dow Cullina, a catered pool-side barbeque (with vegetarian option), an evening workshop on digital macrophotography with Bill Cullina, and early bird hike along stunning Ocean Point in Boothbay, and a guided tour of the new Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens (pictured below – photograph copyright Karl Gercens).  The first scheduled activity is at Bowdoin College, Brunswick, at 10 am on Friday September 10.  The final scheduled activity will be lunch on Sunday, September 12 at the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens, though participants may stay at the Gardens as long as they wish until closing.  Participants may choose to stay with the group at the Coburn House Inn in Boothbay at a reasonable group rate.

    Registration fee is $75, to be sent to the trip coordinator Melissa Dow Cullina, 250 Hendricks Hill Road, Southport Island, ME 04576.  Please make check out to Melissa, who will be coordinating all aspects of the trip.  The fee includes one bag lunch, ferry ticket, barbeque, CMBG ticket, and all scheduled events.  For more information, email Melissa at mcullina@gmail.com, or call 207-633-4546.  You may also find links to lodging options, and may download a pdf file with registration form, at www.rhodora.org.