Boston Flora

Tag: Old Trees

  • Monday, September 15, 6:30 pm – 8:00 pm – Charismatic Megaflora: What Do Old Trees Look Like?

    As with many things, one person’s charismatic megaflora is another person’s tree. For Neil Pederson, PhD, Ecologist, formerly with Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory at Columbia University and now with the Harvard Forest, Harvard University,  a tree that would capture his attention as a younger person is very different from the charismatic specimen that wows him today. What has changed? His understanding of old and the dimensions of time and space as applied to trees. On Monday, September 15, from 6:30 – 8 at the Hunnewell Building at the Arnold Arboretum, Neil Pederson will share how his assumptions were dashed (more than once) and what he has learned while searching for the oldest trees to obtain the longest possible tree-ring based records of environmental history.
    Fee $5 Arboretum member, $10 nonmember.  Register at http://my.arboretum.harvard.edu/Info.aspx?EventID=1.

  • Sunday, September 20, 10 am – 3 pm – Fall Composites on Mt. Toby

    The Mt. Toby State Reservation, located in Sunderland, Massachusetts, in the Connecticut River Valley, is a popular destination for hiking and a fascinating place to botanize.  The diverse and unusual geological formations underlying the Reservation contribute to the well-known diversity and richness of its flora.  In addition to being an outstanding place to find ferns, it is also an excellent location in which to study fall composites.  With Arieh Tal and the New England Wild Flower Society, you will explore open, disturbed areas next to the scenic Cranberry Pond for a large variety of asters, goldenrods and Eupatoriums, and then follow trails and roads through the beautiful forest understory, beneath a high canopy of majestic age-old trees.  The terrain will be relatively easy.  Bring lunch, hand lens, field guides and hiking boots.  The date is Sunday, September 20, beginning at 10 am, and is limited to 15 participants.  Fee $40 members of NEWFS, $45 non members.  Register and get directions at www.newfs.org, or call 508-877-7630.

    http://www.remarc.com/craig/images/asters_and_goldenrod.jpg