Join the New England Botanical Society on Friday, April 5 for its monthly meeting. Ted Elliman, MA botany/ecology instructor, retired, Native Plant Trust, and Lauren Brown, Connecticut author, VP Connecticut Botanical Society, will speak on Unlocking the Grasses, Sedges, and Rushes: Fresh Approaches to Identifying These Challenging Plants. Non-members may register for the meeting access link here.
Join The New England Botanical Club and explore interesting places with great plants, led by local expert botanists. Trips for June, July and August, 2017, are planned, and participants must contact the trip leader 1 week in advance. The third summer trip will take place Sunday, July 30 to Salmon River Cove in East Haddam, Connecticut.
NEBC will join with members of Connecticut Botanical Society to survey the shores and fresh water tidal wetlands of the lower Salmon River. We will paddle upstream as far as Machimoodus State Park where there is a boat launch area to come ashore for lunch. This site was recently bulldozed and may offer interesting pioneer plants. There may be time to botanize other parts of Machimoodus as well. Several State listed species are known from this area. Bring binoculars; this is a great birding area too. Participants must provide their own canoes, kayaks, and PFDs, or arrange for a space in someone else’s boat. Level of Difficulty – Moderate. Trip leader: Bryan Connolly (bconnolly@framingham.edu). Bryan will send meeting time, location, and directions to those who register for the trip.
Learn to recognize the characteristics of native wildflowers in winter in their dormant, leafless state. Specimens will be examined in class, supplemented by slides. This Connecticut Botanical Society workshop will be held at Lockwood Farm Cottage in Hamden, Connecticut, on Wednesday, January 19, beginning at 10 a.m., and is limited to 15 participants. Please register with the workshop leader, Carol Levine, at www.ct-botanical-society.org. If you are not a CBS member, there will be a $15 fee, which includes a one year membership in the Connecticut Botanical Society. Snow date: January 26. For more information, email lemmon@snet.net.
Garden Club of the Back Bay speaker Richard Enser intrigued his audience this past May with a description of a “bioblitz,” and here is an opportunity to participate in one. On Saturday, October 9, we will join with scientists from all disciplines (plants, insects, fish, mammals, etc.) and survey the habitats assigned to us in order to find as many plant species as possible in one day. Habitats include the 250-acre Roosevelt Park, Great Marsh Meadows, Short Beach, a 25-acre woodland, a pond and cranberry bog. Lunch will be provided.
Directions: Meet at Beardsley Zoo in Bridgeport, Connecticut at the Hanson Exploration Station which will be our home base. From New Haven: Take Exit 52 off the Merritt Parkway (South to Bridgeport) to Rt 8 & 25. Proceed to Exit 5 (Boston Ave). At the end of the ramp, bear right and go to the 5th traffic light. Turn left onto Noble Avenue and proceed to the Beardsley Park entrance on the left. Follow the signs to the Zoo entrance on right. From New York, take Exit 49S (Bridgeport) to Rt 25. Proceed to Exit 5 and follow as above. From I-95 (CT Turnpike) Take Exit 27A to Rt 8 & 25. Proceed to Exit 5 (Boston Ave). At the traffic light at the end of the ramp, go left to the 4th traffic light. Turn left onto Noble Avenue and proceed to the Beardsley Park entrance on the left. Follow signs to the Zoo entrance on right.
Leaders: John Triana and Carol Lemmon, (203)-488-781. For additional information, log on to www.ct-botanical-society.org.
Field trips are a long standing tradition of the Connecticut Botanical Society. They provide an opportunity to learn about plants and habitats from some the area’s most knowledgeable botanists, and an opportunity to share your own knowledge with others. The trips also add to the bank of knowledge of New England flora. On each field trip, a list is made of all plant species identified, and this list becomes part of the Society’s records. The Connecticut Botanical Society encourages the gardening public to participate in this Fern Identification Workshop at 55 Harvest Lane in Glastonbury, Connecticut, led by Casper Ultee, Past President of CBS. Although many ferns are readily identified, some are easily confused with similar species. This workshop will focus on those and others that are less common. You may bring your own problem specimens (fronds only, no complete plants, please).  This workshop is limited to ten participants, and pre-registration is required by contacting the leader in advance at 860-633-7557. For field trips, wear sturdy footwear and bring a lunch. Sunscreen and insect repellant are also recommended. For plant identification, you may wish to bring a field guide(s), a hand lens, and a small notebook. Familiarity with plant taxonomy is helpful, but not required.   Free to CBS members. Non-members must pay a $15 fee, which includes a one-year membership in CBS, and entitles you to join future trips this season at no additional cost. For more information and directions, call Casper Ultee at the number above, or log on to www.ct-botanical-society.org.
The Connecticut Botanical Society will sponsor a Sedge Workshop on Saturday, July 10, beginning at 10 am at Lockwood Farm Cottage in Hamden, Connecticut. Led by Sigrun Gadwa, CBS Plant Ecologist, the workshop will work with fresh specimens of the Carex species from the 2010 field season, examining both inflorescences and vegetative characteristics, such as the color of leaf bases. You’ll learn several distinctive sedge “Sections.” If you collect a sedge to bring to the workshop, collect only a small portion of a clump, and a few perigynia (seeds); refrigerate in a ziplock bag until the workshop. Bring a loupe. Directions: Interstate 91: Take exit 10. Follow the Route 40 connector for 3.1 miles. Take a right onto Whitney Ave (Route 10) and go north for 0.6 miles. Take a left onto Evergreen Avenue, go 0.1 mile and take a right onto Kenwood Avenue. The farm is on your left; take the second driveway and follow signs to the cottage. $15 – no registration required. For more information, log on to www.ct-botanical-society.org.
The 2010 Field Meeting of the Northeast Section of the Botanical Society of America, the Torrey Botanical Society and the Philadelphia Botanical Club, to be held Sunday, June 20 – Thursday, June 24 will explore the Botany of Berkshire County, Massachusetts. Participants will stay at Buxton School in the heart of Williamstown, down the street from the famous Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute and Williams College. This is a lovely country setting with hiking trails close by.
Accommodations are in the school dormitory rooms in the main building and two other buildings on campus. Men and women will have separate facilities either by building or by floor. Most rooms will have two, three or four occupants and bathrooms are shared. Private rooms for singles or couples will be hard to come by, but we may be able to arrange something depending on the registration number. Also, if anyone would prefer a private room with bath, the Williams Inn is just down the street and will have rooms available for $125 single and $145 double (plus tax) per night. For this, you make your own arrangements. All your meals would be at Buxton.
Buxton has the reputation of having very good meals using local produce when available. The price of the field meeting will be $350 including four nights lodging and meals from Sunday night thru Thursday breakfast. Linens are included. Without room, price is $225.
Field trips, by bus, will include Mt. Greylock (below), the highest mountain in Massachusetts with its own unique sub-alpine boreal forest and rare plants, and Bartholomew’s Cobble, National Natural Landmark, where “you’ll find one of North America’s greatest diversity of fern species” and many interesting plants amid the unusual geology of the cobbles. Other trips will depend on the best botanical locations at the time. There will be a variety of evening lectures. For further information, contact Chairperson Nan Williams at nnwrowe@gmail.com, (413) 339-5598, or download the invitation at www.ct-botanical-society.org.
This will be an intermediate workshop on lichens. Participants are expected to know basic lichen information. Participants should have the book MicroLichens of New England by Hinds and Hinds or photocopied keys from this book. We will use this lichen key and a few chemicals necessary for identification. Please register by contacting the leader in advance (limit 10). Bring a 15x hand lens or low power microscope. Bring lunch and a beverage (microwave and refrigerator are available). Bring the macrolichens that you wish to work with in the class. We will briefly key several lichens that I will bring, but this is a workshop to learn to key any lichens you find in the field, and especially problematic lichens.
Field trips are a long standing tradition of the Connecticut Botanical Society. They provide an opportunity to learn about plants and habitats from some the area’s most knowledgeable botanists, and an opportunity to share your own knowledge with others. The trips also add to the bank of knowledge of New England flora. On each field trip. a list is made of all plant species identified, and this list becomes part of the Society’s records. The Connecticut Botanical Society encourages the gardening public to participate in this Lichen Identification Workshop in Hamden, Connecticut, led by Carol Lemmon, President of CBS.   For field trips, wear sturdy footwear and bring a lunch. Sunscreen and insect repellant are also recommended. For plant identification, you may wish to bring a field guide(s), a hand lens, and a small notebook. Familiarity with plant taxonomy is helpful, but not required.   Free to CBS members. Non-members must pay a $15 fee, which includes a one-year membership in CBS, and entitles you to join future trips this season at no additional cost. For more information and directions, or to register, call 203-488-7813, or log on to www.ct-botanical-society.org.
Grasses are all around us in great beauty and abundance, yet – lacking bright colors and distinctive shapes – they can be difficult to identify. This workshop will demystify the identification process by pointing out common species and, most importantly, explaining the key characteristics to look for. The workshop, at Lockwood Farm Cottage in Hamden, Connecticut, will focus on naked-eye field ID, not detailed flower morphology. If we see them, we will touch briefly on common sedges and rushes as well.
Field trips are a long standing tradition of the Connecticut Botanical Society. They provide an opportunity to learn about plants and habitats from some the area’s most knowledgeable botanists, and an opportunity to share your own knowledge with others. The trips also add to the bank of knowledge of New England flora. On each field trip. a list is made of all plant species identified, and this list becomes part of the Society’s records. This workshop will be led by Lauren Brown, author of Grasses: A Simplified Identification Guide, published by Houghton Mifflin. For field trips, wear sturdy footwear and bring a lunch. Sunscreen and insect repellant are also recommended. For plant identification, you may wish to bring a field guide(s), a hand lens, and a small notebook. Familiarity with plant taxonomy is helpful, but not required. No pre-registration is required. Free to CBS members. Non-members must pay a $15 fee, which includes a one-year membership in CBS, and entitles you to join future trips this season at no additional cost. For more information and directions, call 203-481-0377, or log on to www.ct-botanical-society.org.
Field trips are a long standing tradition of the Connecticut Botanical Society. They provide an opportunity to learn about plants and habitats from some the area’s most knowledgeable botanists, and an opportunity to share your own knowledge with others. The trips also add to the bank of knowledge of New England flora. On each field trip. a list is made of all plant species identified, and this list becomes part of the Society’s records. The Connecticut Botanical Society encourages the gardening public to participate in this Fern Identification Workshop at Lockwood Farm Cottage in Hamden , Connecticut, led by Casper Ultee, Past President of CBS. Although many ferns are readily identified, some are easily confused with similar species. This workshop will focus on those and others that are less common. You may bring your own problem specimens (fronds only, no complete plants, please).  This workshop is limited to twelve participants, and pre-registration is required by contacting the leader in advance at 860-633-7557. For field trips, wear sturdy footwear and bring a lunch. Sunscreen and insect repellant are also recommended. For plant identification, you may wish to bring a field guide(s), a hand lens, and a small notebook. Familiarity with plant taxonomy is helpful, but not required.   Free to CBS members. Non-members must pay a $15 fee, which includes a one-year membership in CBS, and entitles you to join future trips this season at no additional cost. For more information and directions, call Casper Ultee at the number above, or log on to www.ct-botanical-society.org.
