 June 5, 1857: “I am interested in each contemporary plant in my vicinity, and have attained to a certain acquaintance with the larger ones. They are cohabitants with me of this part of the planet, and they bear familiar names. Yet how essentially wild they are! as wild, really, as those strange fossil plants whose impressions I see on my coal.” Henry David ThoreauJune 6, 1857: “This is June, the month of grass and leaves. The deciduous trees are investing the evergreens and revealing how dark they are. Already the aspens are trembling again, and a new summer is offered me. I feel a little fluttered in my thoughts, as if I might be too late. Each season is but an infinitesimal point. It no sooner comes than it is gone. It has no duration. It simply gives a tone and hue to my thought. Each annual phenomenon is a reminiscence and prompting. Our thoughts and sentiments answer to the revolution of the seasons, as two cog-wheels fit into each other. We are conversant with only one point of contact at a time, from which we receive a prompting and impulse and instantly pass to a new season or point of contact. A year is made up of a certain series and number of sensations and thoughts which have their language in nature. Now I am ice, now I am sorrel. Each experience reduces itself to a mood of the mind.” Henry David Thoreau
June 7, 1851: “It is a certain fairyland where we live. You may walk out in any direction over the earth’s surface, lifting your horizon, and everywhere your path, climbing the convexity of the globe, leads you between heaven and earth, not away from the light of the sun and stars and the habitations of men. I wonder that I ever get five miles on my way, the walk is so crowded with events and phenomena. How many questions there are which I have not put to the inhabitants!” Henry David Thoreau June 23, 1852: “I am inclined to think that my hat, whose lining is gathered in midway so as to make a shelf, is about as good a botany-box as I could have and far more convenient, and there is something in the darkness and the vapors that arise from the head – at least if you take a bath – which preserves flowers through a long walk. Flowers will frequently come fresh out of this botany-box at the end of the day, though they have had no sprinkling.” —————————————————————————– NO CLASS FRIDAY – JUNE 16…….I HAVE A DOCTOR’S APPOINTMENT THAT I CAN’T CHANGE……. NO CLASS FRIDAY – JUNE 30………..A HOSPITAL STAY I CAN’T RESCHEDULE. MAKE-UP CLASSES – IF POSSIBLE – THE FOLLOWING 2 FRIDAYS – JULY 7 and 14……….. —————————————————————————— JUNE 23 – Second Class TREES & SHRUBS & VINES Amelanchier sp. Ginkgo Red Maple Sassafras Spicebush Hawthorn Sweet Pepperbush Oxydendron Populus deltoides Black Forest Bitternut Hickory Magnolia tripetala Mulberry European Beech (Copper Beech) Alder Hibiscus Poison-ivy HERBACEOUS DICOTS Celandine Self-heal Ground-ivy Broad dock Sheep Sorrel Daisy Fleabane False Strawberry Clearweed MONOCOTS Asiatic Dayflower Daylily False Solomon’s Seal —————————————————————————— JUNE 9th – First Class - We looked at more than 25 plants – many of them native but some introduced intentionally or not…. TREES AND SHRUBS AND VINES Eastern White Pine Winter flowering honeysuckle Elderberry in bloom Chinese elm Norway maple English oak White Mulberry Kousa dogwood Green Ash Ailanthus (Tree of Heaven) Porcelain Berry HERBACEOUS PLANTS Garlic mustard jewelweed stinging nettle Polygonum ? pennsylvanicum dandelion wormwood (Artemisia) white snakeroot plantain Speedwell chickweed curly dock white clover least hop clover wood sorrel pokeweed ? false solomon’s seal ?
——————————————————————————- Learn to identify native and introduced herbs, ferns, shrubs, and trees as they appear in summer, and get to know plants that may be found in fields, on roadsides, and in woodlands and wetlands. Learn about basic plant structure, taxonomy, and making your own plant collections. You may borrow a herbarium press ($30 deposit required). Please bring sunscreen. Each class will focus on a distinct ecosystem on the grounds of the NYBG – the area around the Twin Lakes, the Thain forest, a wetland trail, and the Native Plant Garden…… Required Textbook: Arthur Harmount Graves, Illustrated Guide to Trees and Shrubs: A Handbook of the Woody Plants of the Northeastern United States and Adjacent Canada, Dover Publications; Revised edition (August 20, 1992)
RECOMMENDED – useful references Barnard, Ed. “New York City Trees” Eastman, John. “Forest and Thicket,” Field and Roadside,” and “Swamp and Bog” Gracie, Carol. “Spring Wildflowers of the Northeast” Martin, Alexander, et al. “American Wildlife and Plants: A Guide to Wildlife Food Habits” Newcomb, Lawrence. “Newcomb’s Wildflower Guide” Reid, George. “Pond Life” – a Golden Guide Shuttleworth, Floyd. “Non-Flowering Plants” – a Golden Guide Uva, Richard, et al. “Weeds of the Northeast” |
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| Schedule: | Fridays, 06/09/17 – 06/30/17 | |
| Times: | 10:00am – 01:00pm | |
| Instructor: | Gary Lincoff | |
| Location: | NYBG, Watson Room 315 | |
Native Plants in Summer
