Dr. Pamela Diggle, Professor, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Colorado, Boulder, and the 2015 Future President of the Botanical Society of America, will speak to the New England Botanical Club on Friday, April 4, in the Haller Lecture Hall, Room 102, Geological Museum, 24 Oxford Street, Cambridge, on the topic of Learned Societies: Past, Present, and Future. The meeting is free and open to the public. For questions, contact neystersmith@bentley.edu.
Pumpkins, squash, peas, beans, turnips, carrots, potatoes, parsnip, spinach, corn, apples, pecans, cabbage, and more are common components of a Thanksgiving feast. But have you considered these fruits, tubers, nuts, and vegetables from a botanical perspective? In a novel analysis of this traditional meal, Professor Pamela Diggle, Evolutionary Biologist at University of Colorado and Harvard University, will open your eyes to the plant anatomy and physiology that preceded the creation of, say, your grandmother’s sweet potato-marshmallow casserole or your uncle’s savory succotash. This Arnold Arboretum class will be held Wednesday, November 16, from 7 – 8:30 in the Weld Hill Research Building at the Arboretum. Free, but registration requested. Visit www.arboretum.harvard.edu for registration and more information.
Charles Darwin was baffled by many big questions in evolutionary biology, and none more so than the mystery of how the planet’s first flowering plants came to be. On Thursday, November 4, beginning at 6 pm, join William (Ned) Friedman, Professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at University of Colorado, for an exploration into the evolutionary origin of flowering plants, and how recent advances in the fossil record have shed new light on what they may have looked like, where they “lived,” and how they reproduced. Free and open to the public, Geological Lecture Hall, 24 Oxford Street. Part of the Asa Gray Bicentennial series. For more information, log on to www.hmnh.harvard.edu. Image courtesy of NASA.
