Boston Flora

Tag: new England Botanical Club

  • Saturday, January 19, 9:00 am – 4:00 pm – Introduction to Botanical Art and Illustration

    Botanical artist Bobbi Angell will lead a class in botanical art and illustration on Saturday, January 19 from 9 – 4 at the Lyman Conservatory at the Smith College Botanic Garden, 16 College Lane in Northampton.  Free parking passes will be provided. Registration deadline is January 7. Learning to draw while learning to observe increases one’s knowledge, understanding, and appreciation of the world of plants. Botanical artist Bobbi Angell will guide participants through the process of creating an illustration that defines and depicts a particular species. Using pressed herbarium specimens and preserved flowers, participants will design a composition with a plant habit and dissected flowers and enlarged details, with a layout intended for publication or framing. Sketches can be inked or colored afterwards. Bring your hand lens, pencils and erasers; plant material and paper will be provided. The only prerequisites are curiosity and expandable interest in plants.

    Instructor Bobbi Angell draws plants for scientists at The New York Botanical Garden, Harvard University, and other institutions for floras and monographs. Ongoing work features illustrations of neotropical species new to science. To view her work, visit http://www.bobbiangell.com. She is co-author of A Botanist’s Vocabulary (Timber Press).

    Bobbi is the artist for the current logo for the New England Botanical Club. NEBC member price $30, nonmembers $60. Register at http://www.rhodora.org/whatsnew.html

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  • Friday, January 11, 5:30 pm – Nineteenth Narrative and Notes on Nature with Nutritious Nibbles

    Mark your calendar for the next New England Botanical Club Meeting on January 11, 2019 at the Division of Fisheries and Wildlife Cronin building, 1 Rabbit Hill Road, Westborough, MA (Room 108 – Southeast Conference Room) Potluck dinner begins at 5:30 pm. Bring a potluck dish to share with other members and guests. Botanical labeling of dishes is encouraged. Dinner will be followed by a raffle of books and botanical items. A number of books and special botanical items have already been donated. Bring cash! Members and guests may share anything of botanical or club interest. Limit of about 10 slides or 5 minutes narration.

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  • Friday, December 7, 6:45 pm – Genetic Diversity and Phyloecology of the Western North American Pyrola picta Species Complex

    Species in the Pyrola picta complex have broadly overlapping ranges along montane corridors from western Canada to Mexico and in some regions can be found in close sympatry. Using geographical and climatic affinity for phylogenetic ancestral state/area estimation under multiple dispersal and vicariance models, Dr. Diana Jolles, Assistant Professor, Department of Biological Sciences and Director of the Plymouth State University Herbarium at Plymouth State University in New Hampshire investigated the environmental conditions under which these species likely evolved. Initial estimates suggest that the P. picta species complex originated in the Sierra Nevada of California and that subsequent speciation was associated with dispersal to distinct geographical locations and ecological settings within the present-day, collective range. The present-day distribution is likely the result of secondary contact caused by climatic shifts and subsequent range expansion. Among other things, this study highlights the importance of specimen annotation for studying species’ geographic range characteristics. Dr. Jolles will speak at the December meeting of the New England Botanical Club on December 7 at 6:45 at Harvard University’s Haller Lecture Hall, 24 Oxford Street in Cambridge. The lecture is free and open to the public.

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  • Friday, November 2, 6:45 pm – Is Plant Exploration Dead in a Plant-blind Era?

    Dr. Michael Dosmann, Keeper of Living Collections, Arnold Arboretum, will address the New England Botanical Club on Friday, November 2 at 6:45 pm on the topic of Is Plant Exploration Dead in a Plant-blind Era? Meetings at Harvard University are held in Haller Lecture Hall (Room 102), Geological Museum, 24 Oxford St., Cambridge, MA 02138 (door to right of Harvard Museum of Natural History entrance). Open to the public. More information can be found at http://www.rhodora.org/meetings/upcomingmeetings.html

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  • Saturday, October 13 – Things Fall Apart: Land-Use History, Non-Native Insects, Climate Change, and the Decline of a Forest

    The October New England Botanical Club meeting will take place Saturday, October 13 at the Harvard Forest in Petersham, Massachusetts. The featured speaker is Dr. Aaron Ellison, Senior Research Fellow in Ecology at the Harvard Forest. From late morning to mid-afternoon, there will be a tree coring and dendroecology workshop with Dr. Neil Pederson, and filed trips to sites of botanical interest around Petersham. In the late afternoon and evening, you will enjoy a tour of the Hemlock Hospice installation with Dr. Ellison at 4 pm, followed by a potluck dinner with NEBC members and guests (6 pm), and a 7 pm presentation from Dr. Ellison in the Fisher Museum at the Harvard Forest. For more information visit www.rhodora.org. Image courtesy of The Harvard Crimson.

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  • Friday, September 14 – Sunday, September 16 – Vascular Plants of the Americas: A Searchable Database

    On September 14 – September 16, at the September meeting of the New England Botanical Club, Dr. Carmen Ulloa, Missouri Botanical Garden, will present Vascular Plants of the Americas: A Searchable Database, that includes 124,993 species. This will be a joint meeting with the Botanical Club of Cape Cod and the Islands (BCCCI) to celebrate their 20th anniversary. The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution meeting space has been reserved, and field trip planning with BCCCI is underway. For updated information visit http://rhodora.org.

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  • Friday, June 1 – Saturday, June 2 – Invasiveness of Intra-continental Exotic Plants in New England: Implications for Assisted Migration

    The New England Botanical Club will host an away meeting in western Massachusetts on June 1 and 2. Field trips are being planned for both Friday and Saturday to botanical hot spots around the Northampton area. On Friday afternoon-evening, there will be a reception and open house at the Smith College Botanic Garden in Northampton from 4-6PM, followed by a lecture by Dr. Gretel Clarke, Department of Biological Sciences, Smith College, on Invasiveness of intra-versus inter-continental exotic plants in New England: Implications for Assisted Migration.  On Saturday, there will be two workshops:

    Bryophyte Identification with Sue Williams – This workshop, based at Smith College’s MacLeish Field Station in Whately, MA, will provide an introduction to the basics of bryophyte ecology and identification. The workshop will begin with a short hike through an old hemlock and sugar maple forest area with a diverse assemblage of bryophytes. Samples will be collected for later observation and identification at the Bechtel Environmental Classroom building at the MacLeish Field Station; dissecting microscopes will be available. This workshop will run until mid-afternoon, please bring a bagged lunch.

    Herbarium Skills with Roberta Lombardi – This workshop, based at the University of Massachusetts – Amherst Herbarium, will focus on the techniques involved in collecting, pressing, mounting, and preserving plant specimens for herbarium collections. The workshop will start with a short field foray, after which participants will return to the UMass Herbarium to work with plant specimens, walk through the steps involved in mounting and labeling specimens, and get an overview of how large herbarium collections are organized and managed. This will be a valuable workshop for those interesting in formally documenting their local flora or preparing voucher specimens of plant species documented in their research.

    Saturday’s Field Trips include:

    Montague Sandplain and Will’s Hill – The trip will begin with a walk through the pitch pine-scrub oak communities of the Montague Sandplain, with huckleberry, chokeberry, sand cherry and others in flower, and passing through a well-managed population of native blue lupine. Next, we will traverse a powerline corridor over Will’s Hill, with species of “rich & rocky” sites like yellow star-grass, red columbine, and perfoliate-leaved bellflower, plus a healthy population of American bittersweet. As time & interest permit, we may also visit a few rich seepy sites on the forested portion of the Hill, with abundant spicebush, nodding trillium and others. Also be prepared for incidental reptiles and birds! Plan on 2.5-3 miles walking on level to gentle slopes. Please bring a bagged lunch and water.

    Historical Land Use Patterns and Forest Vegetation at the MacLeish Field Station (pictured below) – This field trip will explore the upland forests of Smith College’s MacLeish Field Station in Whately and Conway, MA with a particular focus on how 19th century agricultural land use patterns continue to affect plant species distributions and vegetation patterns in 21st century forests. We will explore old farm sites, see evidence of 19th century plow lines, and visit a remnant area of primary forest with increased plant diversity. Please bring a bagged lunch and water.

    Botanical Foray with members of the Franklin County Flora team – This field trip will be with key contributors to the Franklin County Flora project, and will explore sites of botanical interest in Franklin County. Please bring a bagged lunch and water.

    For full registration details visit http://www.rhodora.org/meetings/upcomingmeetings.html

  • Friday, May 4, 6:45 pm – Patterns and Changes in the Flora of Franklin County, Massachusetts

    Dr. Robert Bertin, Anthony and Renee Marlon Professor in the Sciences, Biology Department, College of the Holy Cross, Worcester, Massachusetts, will speak to the New England Botanical Club on Friday May 4 at 6:45 pm on Patterns and Changes in the Flora of Franklin County, Massachusetts. In a departure from the usual venue, the meeting will take place at Garden in the Woods, 180 Hemenway Street, Framingham. For complete information visit http://rhodora.org.

  • Friday, April 6, 6:45 pm – New England Lichens: Leveraging Past Riches to Understanding the Present and Future

    The New England Botanical Club Distinguished Speaker, Dr. James Lendemer, will speak on Friday, April 6 at 6:45 pm in the Haller Lecture Hall, Room 102, Geological Museum, 24 Oxfore Street in Cambridge. Dr. Lendemer is Assistant Curator, Lichenology, Institute of Systematic Botany, New York Botanical Garden, and Assistant Professor, Department of Biology Graduate Center, City University of New York. His topic is New England Lichens: Leveraging Past Riches to Understanding the Present and Future. Dr. Lendemer says: “As the staff lichenologist and an assistant curator in the Institute of Systematic Botany, I spearhead a diverse program of research and education focused on lichens—symbiotic fungi that are often considered to be the equivalent of corals on land. I oversee the curation of the lichen collection at New York Botanical Garden, the largest such collection in the western hemisphere, and one that serves scientists and land managers worldwide by providing access to unique high quality data. My research focuses on understanding the biodiversity of lichens in North America, while simultaneously working with collaborative partners to develop and implement conservation strategies that will safeguard those species for future generations.” Free and open to the public. For more information visit www.rhodora.org.

  • Friday, February 2, 6:45 pm – Rare Vascular Plants in Massachusetts: Natural Heritage Maps the Mystery

    Dr. Bob Wernerehl, State Botanist, Massachusetts Natural Heritage & Endangered Species Program, Division of Fisheries & Wildlife, Westboro, Massachusetts, will speak to the New England Botanical Club on Friday, February 2 beginning at 6:45 in the Haller Lecture Hall, Room 102, Geological Museum, 24 Oxford Street in Cambridge, on the topic of Rare Vascular Plants in Massachusetts: Natural Heritage Maps the Mystery. Bob protects 300 rare plant species through conservation measures, ecological planning and inventory survey work, and lends support to many other conservation organizations in New England. The meeting is free and open to the public. For more information visit http://rhodora.org