Not to be missed! Marc Williams (Botany Everyday) will be leading a workshop on Plant Family Patterns: The Key to See and Mocktail Hour. Plant Family Patterns can greatly aid in demystifying the “green wall” of species around us. Approximately 300,000 species of flowering plants are known to global science. These species have been grouped into around 15,000 genera and over 400 flowering plant families. About 200 flowering plant families grow in the temperate world where it annually frosts and or freezes. You will know something significant about the majority of plants that you see in the temperate world if you learn the top 30 families around you. It is often possible to guess whether a plant is edible, medicinal, or poisonous simply by the family it occupies. However, some exceptions are important to know as well. We will engage in a walk and talk around Mountain Gardens where we will delve into the major plant families of the Southern USA. Students will reinforce plant identification skills by observing family patterns such as leaf, flower and fruit types. Uses including edibility, medicinality, craft, wildlife promotion and landscape beauty will be discussed. Participants will gain a more holistic understanding of the major plants comprising the Southern US flora and their potential ecological and ethnobotanical applications.
We will finish with a celebratory mocktail hour and honey tasting where students can mix an match various non-alcoholic beverages and try honeys from various parts of the world along with tree syrups like Black Walnut, Birch and Hickory as well.