Boston Flora

Tag: Plants Go to War

  • Sunday, October 24, 11:00 am – 12:00 noon – Victory Gardens: How a Nation of Gardeners Helped to Win the War

    During World War II, homefront Victory Gardens flourished nationwide—in former lawns, flower gardens, school yards, parks, abandoned lots, and ball fields. As part of the war effort, posters encouraged patriotic Americans to “Grow vitamins at your kitchen door” and “Eat what you can, and can what you cannot eat.” In fact, Americans needed to supplement their diets during a time of food rationing and shortages. Nearly 20 million gardeners answered the call, including many who had never wielded a hoe. Victory gardeners learned to prepare soil beds, grow seedlings, cultivate, control weeds, irrigate, and eliminate pests—raising successful crops for the duration of the war years. Join Berkshire Botanical Gardens on October 24 at 11 as we explore the role of 1940s vegetable gardens, ration-book cookery, and food preservation in wartime victory. Victory gardens provided food and promoted morale during World War II, and by 1944 American gardeners grew forty-four percent of the produce that fed civilian families. In this slide illustrated talk Judith Sumner will trace the Victory Garden movement, including the Roosevelt White House garden, urban gardens, school gardens, food preservation, wartime nutrition, and ration book cookery. We will also look at the British Dig for Victory campaign, Hedgerow Harvest program, and the Women’s Land Army. This program is led by Judith Summer, author of Plants Go to War: A Botanical History of World War II (McFarland Books, 2019).

    Judith Sumner is the author of Plants Go to War: A Botanical History of World War II (McFarland Books, 2019), the first book to examine the historical roles of plants and botanical science in warfare. Judith is a classically trained botanist and author who specializes in ethnobotany, flowering plants, plant adaptations and garden history. She is a graduate of Vassar College and completed her graduate studies in botany at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst. She studied at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew; at the British Museum; the Jardin des Plantes; and did extensive field work in the Pacific region on the genus Pittosporum. Judith is currently at work on a botanical history of the American Civil War.

  • Wednesdays, October 13 & 20, 5:30 pm – 7:00 pm – Botanical Names for the Fearful, Online

    In this two-session Berkshire Botanical course offered on Zoom on October 13 & 20 at 5:30 pm, led by Judith Summer, we will begin with a tour of the plant kingdom with attention to plant names and their history. We’ll explore the work of Linnaeus and the origin of botanical binomials — the naming system in place since 1753 — and decode the Latin and Greek roots that occur commonly in plant names. Illustrated lectures will weave botanical nomenclature with science, exploration, history, and the state of modern plant names, from the ancient Doctrine of Signatures to modern DNA analysis. We’ll also discuss why names sometimes change (Hint: not to vex gardeners!). Visuals will include both familiar plants and some that are quite rare, accompanied by explanation and decoding of their botanical names. An opportunity to gain confidence in dealing with scientific plant names, we will examine several techniques for learning names with ease, and the course will conclude with a collaborative “quiz” to pool our collective knowledge. Participants will receive two recent articles written by Judith Sumne on Linnaean history and the useful details of botanical nomenclature.

    Judith Sumner is classically trained botanist and author who specializes in ethnobotany, flowering plants, plant adaptations and garden history. She is a graduate of Vassar College and completed her graduate studies in botany at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst. She studied at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew; at the British Museum; the Jardin des Plantes; and did extensive field work in the Pacific region on the genus Pittosporum. In addition to writing, her projects include field studies in the Great Smoky Mountains and work with the United Nations developing petroleum-rich plants in the Caribbean. She served as a visiting scientist for several summers in the LEAP (Learning about Plants) program at Harvard for Boston school teachers and has volunteered as a National Public Radio Science mentor. Judith has been the scientist-in-residence at the Star Island Natural History Conference and a guest on the “Martha Stewart Living” TV show, the PBS program “Cultivating Life,” and various other PBS and educational programs. She lectures widely and is an award-winning writer including: The Natural History of Medicinal Plants (Timber Press); American Household Botany (Timber Press); and Plants Go to War: A Botanical History of World War II.

    $30 for BBG members, $45 for nonmembers. Register at https://www.berkshirebotanical.org/events/botanical-names-fearful

  • Tuesday, March 17, 11:00 am – 12:30 pm – The Herbal History of World War II – POSTPONED

    Based on research completed for her recent book, Plants Go to War: A Botanical History of World War II, Judith Sumner will discuss the importance of herbs and medicinal plants in the war effort. From the County Herb Committees in England to South American cinchona (quinine) missions, plants played essential roles in treating wartime illnesses and conditions. We’ll examine the botanical origins of treatments for ailments ranging from bacterial infections and tropical parasites to vitamin deficiencies and bombing-induced stress. The Tower Hill Botanic Garden talk on March 17 from 11 – 12:30 will also include historical perspective on the cultural and medicinal role of herbs in the Third Reich, including the cultivation of extensive herbal gardens at concentration camps.

    Judith Sumner is a botanist who specializes in ethnobotany, flowering plants, plant adaptations, and garden history. She has taught extensively both at the college level and at botanical gardens, including the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University and Garden in the Woods. Judith graduated from Vassar College and completed graduate studies in botany at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. She studied at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and at the British Museum (Natural History) and did extensive field work in the Pacific region on the genus Pittosporum. She has published monographic studies in the American Journal of Botany, Pollen et Spores, and Allertonia, as well as monographing two families for Flora Vitiensis Nova.

    The session is $15 for THBG members, $20 for nonmembers. Register at www.towerhillbg.org.

  • Thursday, October 3, 6:00 pm – 8:30 pm – Plants Go To War

    Join the Massachusetts Horticultural Society on October 3 at The Gardens at Elm Bank for a special presentation and book signing with author Judith Sumner. Drawing from her book, Plants Go to War, Sumner will examine the plants that provided wartime food, pharmaceutical drugs, timber, rubber, canvas, and other essential goods and survival techniques that helped to win the war. Join us for a fascinating story of the convergence of history and horticulture! Join us for a reception at 6 p.m. copies of Plants Go to War will be available for purchasing and signing. Presentation to begin at 7 p.m. $30 for Mass Hort members, $45 general admission. Register at https://masshort.org/garden-event/plants-go-to-war/

    Judith Sumner is a botanist who specializes in ethnobotany, flowering plants, plant adaptations, and garden history. She has taught extensively both at the college level and at botanical gardens, including the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University and Garden in the Woods. Judith graduated from Vassar College and completed graduate studies in botany at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.  She studied at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and at the British Museum (Natural History) and did extensive field work in the Pacific region on the genus Pittosporum.