A brief note before I crash for the night. It's been a long day. Tonight was the first time I've been in a classroom, outside of work, in about 25 years. It was my first class of Botany for Horticulturists, one of eight courses I need to complete to receive a Certificate in Horticulture from the Brooklyn Botanic Garden.
Tonight was orientation and overview. And we had time to get into the beginnings of classification.
Although the apparent stars in these pots are the carnivorous Sundews and Pitcher Plants, they were on hand to give us some close looks at Bryophytes: liverworts and mosses. Here, in a pot of Sundews, the liverworts are giving rise to fruiting bodies.
Here's some closeups of the mosses. If you look closely, we can see some baby Sundews in there, too.
The best part, though I have no photos of it, was walking through the greenhouses at night and having them all to ourselves. It was warm and kinda spooky at the same time. We moved there to get some looks at Pteridophytes - Ferns, the earliest vascular plants - and Cycads.
This course runs seven weeks, through the middle of May. I'm looking forward to it.
Hi Xris,
ReplyDeleteI posted another comment on your April 19 Native Flora post, I apologize if this is a dupe comment--I'm having some trouble with the interface.
I love your blog. The photos are spectacular. I'm a guide at BBG and I took the Botany class in March-April--what do you think? Going into the greenhouses at night is extraordinary, isn't it?
Hey, Cat! I like the class. I think I'm annoying my classmates with the photography. I need to get a bounce or filter over the flash so I stop blinding them.
ReplyDeleteI'm taking the full curriculum over time to get my Certificate in Horticulture. My next two classes over the summer are Pest management and Woody Plant Identification. Maybe we'll see each other!