On Wednesday, March 4, from 7 – 8:30, Grow Native Massachusetts will sponsor a free talk by Bill Brumback, Director of Conservation, New England Wild Flower Society, to be held at the Cambridge Public Library, 449 Broadway in Cambridge.
Did you know that New England is home to more than 50 species of native terrestrial orchids? Although not so showy as the tropical orchids of the florist trade, our hardy species have fascinated botanists for centuries.
Adapted to specific habitats from Maine’s northern woodlands to the sands of Nantucket, these orchids are fascinating in their diversity and their adaptations. Discover more about our New England orchids, their haunts, their peculiar lifestyles, their rarity, and their pollination systems. Learn which ones are cultivated in the nursery trade and adapted to gardens, and how we can conserve all of these species.
Bill Brumback has worked for the New England Wild Flower Society for several decades. His contributions to the conservation of our region’s flora are extensive, and his work to propagate and protect Robbin’s cinquefoil in New Hampshire’s White Mountains led to its recovery and subsequent removal from the U.S. Endangered Species list. He has been studying the rare native orchid, small whorled pogonia (Isotria medeoloides), for thirty years and claims that he still doesn’t understand it.
