Help Record Plant Phenology in New York With Project Bud Break

Posted March 15, 2011 by nyflora
Categories: Natural History, Publications, Apps, and Websites

Now that plants are starting to flower (I have gotten reports of skunk cabbage and pussy willow) you can help record this natural phenomenon by using the New York-based website Project Bud Break. According to the website it is associated with a national effort, a network of citizen scientists that is being established in New York to observe the timing of flowering, leaf development, fruiting, and leaf drop in populations of common native trees and herbaceous species. This site will help observers to enter their data on the timing of important plant events through the growing season. Through time they can see the effects of climate change by observing the fluctuations in phenology of our native plants. To register for the site CLICK HERE.

Help record the flowering and fruiting of trees like the silver maple pictured here.

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Botany 2011 – July 9-13, St. Louis

Posted March 14, 2011 by nyflora
Categories: Happenings

This is one of the best botanical conferences in the world. For a list of session topics CLICK HERE.

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A New Social Network Just for Botanists

Posted March 14, 2011 by nyflora
Categories: Publications, Apps, and Websites

This new website, www.my-plant.0rg,  was created by Richard Olmstead and funded by the National Science Foundation to foster communication among botanists working on specific groups of plants. Users can create their own ‘clade’, like New York mints for example, and invite others to join in the discussion to build a community of users with similar taxomomic interests.  The developers tout it as more than just another social networking site, My-Plant.org also provides integrations and links into other sites, tools and repositories of information both within iPlant and across the community as a whole.

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Butternut Valley Alliance Plans Wildflower Walk Sunday, June 5, 2011

Posted March 11, 2011 by nyflora
Categories: Field Trips

The Butternut Valley Alliance in Otsego County has scheduled their second annual wildflower walk for Sunday June 5th, at 1:30 PM.

There are pictures of last year’s walk on the Butternut Valley Alliance website. View the pdf of the Flora Walk at the Stroh’s. This year they are hoping it won’t be so rainy.  They would appreciate all the botanical help they can get so they can assemble a good native and invasive plant list of the area.

A pot luck picnic is planned for 4 PM.

For more information contact Leslie Stroh at lstroh@exporter.com.

CLICK HERE for more photos of the beautiful Butternut Valley.

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Breaking news: Skunk Cabbage Seen Flowering in Dutchess County

Posted March 10, 2011 by nyflora
Categories: What's Blooming

NYFA board member Aissa Feldmann saw skunk cabbage blooming in a swamp at Stony Kill Farm near Beacon in Dutchess County on March 9th while performing surveys for New England cottontail. The snow was patchy (see photo) so she didn’t see the process of snow melting that characterizes these flowers. Spring is on the way!

skunk cabbage spathe and spadix later in the season

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Save the Date: Long Island Pine Barrens Discovery Day Saturday, June 11

Posted March 9, 2011 by nyflora
Categories: Classes and Workshops, Field Trips, Happenings

Learn about the ecology of the Long Island Central Pine Barrens and take part in other educational fun shops, field trips and a kids Discovery Center.  Fun for the whole family.  More information is available at their website.  CLICK HERE to access it.  Rain date June 12th.

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The History of High School Botany Education in America

Posted March 8, 2011 by nyflora
Categories: Natural History, Plant Identification, Publications, Apps, and Websites

Margaret Conover, a botanist from SUNY Stony Brook, has written an interesting overview of how botany has been taught in American high schools from 1800 to the present.  She states that just over 100 years ago nearly all high-school students studied botany for a full year and emphasis was placed on identifying local flora.

Later, the “Golden Age of Botany Teaching” and the nature study movement of the early 1900s had students studying all aspects of plants in nature. The state Board of Regents even had a botany exam (which you can take yourself on page 4 of her article).What happened to this emphasis on botany in high schools? Read her article and you will find out why it is so different today.  Why a student who omits the answer to every plant related question on the Living Environments Regents Exam could still receive a passing grade of 80% and what the forces are that have led to the decline of botany as a subject in high school.

She ends with a note of hope that people are working to cure the “plant blindness” that pervades high-school biology education. To read the full article from the Long Island Botanical Society newsletter CLICK HERE.

Marielle Anzelone teaches high schoolers about plants in the Bronx. Photo Drosera.com

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The Authors of the Cyperaceae of Maine Need a Few Photos

Posted March 8, 2011 by nyflora
Categories: Publications, Apps, and Websites
Glen Mittelhauser is in the final stages of compiling and editing a field guide to the Cyperaceae of Maine (collaborative effort with Alison Dibble, Matt Arsenault, Don Cameron, Jill Weber, Sally Rooney, and Arthur Haines) and is on track for having this guide published in the next year or two.  The field guide has numerous color photos throughout, with photos of many key characters needed for field identification of each species.  They are slowly picking away on the list of taxa for which they have no photos.  They need photos of the 6 taxa below that they would like to use in their publication (just about any photos would do for these species).  They will give full photographer credit for any donated photos.
Carex macloviana
Carex praegracilis
Carex rariflora
Cyperus houghtonii
Eleocharis intermedia
Eleocharis nitida

If you have a photos of one or more of these species, contact

Glen Mittelhauser, Biologist
Maine Natural History Observatory
317 Guzzle Road
Gouldsboro, ME 04607
(207)963-2012
purplesandpiper@gmail.com

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A Flurry of Flora Flashcards

Posted March 7, 2011 by nyflora
Categories: Quiz

Look on the website quizlet.com and you will see many sets of electronic flashcards that can be used to test your knowledge of the flora of a variety of areas from states (Ohio, North Carolina) to local flora. For New Yorkers, you should try the Ohio set since it has a majority of species that are in both states.  Someone should make sets for New York plant groups. To access the site CLICK HERE and have fun! – Steve Young

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Upcoming Spring Events at the Long Island Long Pond Greenbelt

Posted March 6, 2011 by nyflora
Categories: Happenings

The most recent newsletter is out for the Long Pond Greenbelt and they highlight some interesting events that pertain to our native flora including:

Saturday, May 7. Peconic Family Fun Day at the Children’s Museum of the East End. This is the first year we’ll be at this event.

Saturday, June 5. Using Native Grasses In Landscaping & Habitat Restoration: A Hands-On Primer. Cosponsored by the Long Island Native Grass Initiative & SoFo. 10:00 at Vineyard Field. Presentation followed by planting session.

For the entire newsletter CLICK HERE.

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