Scientists have engineered so many new products from mycelium that Scientific American heralds the dawn of the “Mycelium Revolution” and Harper’s Bazaar dubs fungi “The Future of Fashion.” Explore how scientists have harnessed mycelium’s ability to create complex structures that are now being used as eco-friendly alternatives to plastic, leather, meat, and Styrofoam. This online lecture with John Michelotti is sponsored by the New York Botanical Garden on Tuesday, February 28, and is $45 for NYBG members, $49 for nonmembers. Register at www.nybg.org
From “mushroom leather” fashion to best-selling books on how mycelial networks create webs of interconnectivity between species, fungi continue to capture the contemporary imagination. Join the New York Botanical Garden on February 16 online to view stunning artwork created by botanical artists Christiane Fashek, Lucy Martin, and Margaret Saylor, who have long focused their artistic lenses on mushrooms and lichens. Each artist will show a curated selection of their work and discuss how they collect, prepare, or photograph specimens for study, how they depict these tiny organisms in such intimate detail, and why they too remain fascinated by fungi. Those interested in submitting work for Unsung Allies, The Fifth NYBG Triennial, will gain invaluable insights from these experts. $18. Register at www.nybg.org.
Valerie Segrest is dedicated to making sure tribal communities throughout North America can access traditional foods. In this inspiring online New York Botanical Garden talk on February 9 at 6 pm, she discusses the many food sovereignty initiatives spearheaded by Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest and beyond, including regaining legal control of ancestral lands, organizing harvest and berry festivals, and offering workshops on elk-processing, salmon filleting, and other traditional food preparation techniques.
An enrolled member of the Muckleshoot Indian Tribe, Valerie Segrest is the co-founder of Tahoma Peak Solutions, which specializes in strategic communications and food systems strategies that serve tribal communities. As a Native nutrition educator, Segrest raises awareness and helps identify and overcome barriers so Indigenous peoples are able to access traditional foods. Segrest co-authored Feeding Seven Generations and Indigenous Home Cooking.
On February 23 from 11 – noon online with the New York Botanical Garden, Susana Rojas Saviñón and Hortense Blanchard share what makes their Mexico City practice unique, including their use of aromatic, edible, medicinal, and native Mexican plants, some of which they propagate from wild seeds they collect. The pair will discuss their award-winning Forest Garden, a residential landscape located within an ecological reserve that features a vegetable garden, natural pool, and fern garden. They will also provide a look at Lava Garden, which turned a lawn-covered suburban backyard into a lush oasis that realigns the garden with the land’s original volcanic ecology and the house’s midcentury modernist architecture.
Led by Susana Rojas Saviñón and Hortense Blanchard, Estudio Ome designs gardens that strike the perfect balance between what is built and what is alive. The recipient of Mexico’s 2020 Young Creators Grant and Professor at Mexico City’s Universidad Iberoamericana, Rojas Saviñón holds a MPhil in Architecture and Urban Design. A French landscape architect, Blanchard previously worked for Dan Pearson, Rozana Montiel, and Irène Djao Rakitine.
The webinar is $35 and registration is at www.nybg.org
How can we elevate design to save the planet? In this lushly illustrated New York Botanical Garden talk on January 26 at 11 am EST, award-winning landscape architect Kona Gray, FASLA, PLA, discusses how his projects answer this question. He will share how his landscapes center ecological sensitivity and cultural inclusivity, from Etéreo, an ecolodge nestled in the pygmy mangroves of Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, to River Park Center, an urban green space in Miami-Dade County. Draw inspiration for how to reconnect ourselves and our communities more deeply to the outdoors, and how that connection will develop environmental empathy and foster a shared sense of responsibility for our planet.
Principal of EDSA Kona A. Gray, FASLA, PLA, has 28 years of experience creating award-winning spaces that reinvigorate imaginations, solve meaningful global issues, and promote community in diverse neighborhoods in more than 30 countries. Gray is a Fellow of the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA), a member of the Landscape Architecture Accreditation Board, and a leader of a wide variety of DEI initiatives in landscape architecture organizations and universities.
Fascinating adaptations, galls are highly modified tissues in plants caused by arthopods, fungi, viruses, or bacteria. Surprisingly little is known about the biology and ecology of galls, making them a prime topic for naturalists to study. This New York Botanical Garden online class on January 18 at 6:30 pm will focus on the ecology of galls created by wasps, midges, aphids, psyllids, and more in the northeastern U.S. Participants will receive some tips on how to identify some of the more common species around so you can begin to study them come spring.
John Butler, the lecturer, earned a bachelor’s degree in Wildlife and Fisheries Biology from the University of Vermont in 2013, and in 2021 a masters degree in Geographic Information Sciences at CUNY Lehman College. Currently the Program Director of Restoration & Stewardship at the Van Cortlandt Park Alliance, John develops goals for forest restoration and management across the park’s 640 acres of forested land, all while engaging community members in this important work.He is a Certified Ecological Restoration Practitioner through the Society for Ecological Restoration and a lover of salamanders.
Maine-based landscape architect David Maynes creates spaces that encourage people to actively engage with the ecological processes that unfold around them. For him, a client’s perception of the landscape is just as important as a plant palette; a landscape’s edges and transitions create opportunities; and a site’s details are the bridge that foster connection between people and landscapes. Join the New York Botanical Garden and Maynes on January 17 for a wide-ranging discussion about the natural materials he uses in his design work. David Maynes, PLA, has more than 20 years of experience designing, planning, and building landscapes in New England and Maritime Canada. Currently, davidmaynesSTUDIO focuses on private residential design, farm and landscape systems design, rural park development, ecosystem restoration, and long-term landscape planning. He holds a BS in Environmental Horticulture & Design from the University of Maine, Orono and an MLA from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
The event is $26 for nonmembers of NYBG. Register HERE.
Your digestive system is home to over 70% of your immune system. Keeping your gut in tip-top shape is crucial to maintaining good health. In this January 9 New York Botanical Garden online webinar with Cheryl Paswater, we will examine the difference between good and bad bacteria and explore how each affects your energy level, skin, and overall health. We’ll focus on how to strengthen your digestion and create better eating habits, including by introducing fermented foods and herbal medicine into your diet. $45 for NYBG members, $49 for nonmembers. RegisterHERE
Our lives on Earth are totally dependent on plants. As people start making plans for long-distance space travel, there is a critical need for technology that can bring life-sustaining plants along on the journey. Join Dr. Carl Lewis as he discusses current space gardening technology and the research now underway to make it better.
Dr. Carl Lewis is Director of Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden, a position he has held since 2008. He received a Ph.D. in Systematic Botany from Cornell University in 2001 and a bachelor’s degree in Botany from Connecticut College in 1995. With a research specialization in systematics and evolution, Dr. Lewis has conducted field research in tropical regions worldwide.
He expanded Fairchild’s public outreach with the addition of major citizen science initiatives including the Million Orchid Project and Growing Beyond Earth. Dr. Lewis is the principal investigator on several NASA grants awarded to Fairchild.
This New York Botanical Garden online talk will be held November 30 at 6 pm. $15 for NYBG members, $18 for nonmembers. Register HERE
Roderick Wyllie and James A. Lord, founding partners of Surfacedesign, a San Francisco-based landscape architecture studio, challenge conventional approaches to design by asking novel questions and listening to a site and its users. By doing so, Wyllie and Lord focus on cultivating a sense of connection between the built and the natural world, inviting people to engage with the landscape in new ways. Together, the two landscape architects will present work that ranges in location and scale, from civic projects to intimate residential gardens, including Auckland International Airport in New Zealand; the 40-acre Expedia headquarters site on Seattle’s waterfront; Uber’s headquarters in San Francisco that includes a public park; and Uliveto, a private residence in Northern California.
Roderick Wyllie, FASLA, and James A. Lord, FASLA, along with partner Geoff di Girolamo, have established Surfacedesign as an international leader in landscape architecture, urban design, andsustainability. Alumni of Harvard’s Graduate School of Design, both are ASLA Fellows. For the consistent excellence of their built designs, they were honored with the 2017 Cooper Hewitt Design Award.
This online New York Botanical Garden talk will take place November 7 from 6:30 – 7:30 Eastern time, and is $35. Register HERE.
