On Saturday March 11th our lecture will be Weird Sex in Nature, How Plants Get it On presented by Elizabeth Farnsworth. She is an excellent speaker and is presenting a funny topic on plant reproduction. Plants have many strategies for reproduction: Some plants can be wind pollinated, but as we know, many rely on insects for pollination. Of course, insects have a different kind of vision that humans and some plants provide “guides” to help insects get to the nectar reward while also pollinating the flower.
Elizabeth is the senior research ecologist with the New England Wildflower Society. She has co-authored Ferns of Northeastern and Central North America and more recently, the award-winning A Field Guide to the Ants of New England. She is also an accomplished illustrator, providing drawings for Flora Novae-Angliae, the Natural Communities of New Hampshire and three other books.
Elizabeth has a hand in developing Go Botany, an interactive online guide to the entire New England Flora. This is a great tool, it is a new, useful teaching resource! Go Botany encourages informal, self-directed education in botany for science students and beginning and amateur botanists through a relatively simple key online. Check it out at https://gobotany.newenglandwild.org
