From Aster to Symphyotrichum: New Names for our New World Asters
Date/Time
Thursday, September 20, 2012
6:45 pm - 8:45 pm
Location
James City County Recreation Center
Categories
Guest speaker Beth Chambers, curator of the Herbarium of the College of William and Mary, will give a presentation on asters during our annual meeting. Ms. Chamber’s talk will cover the differences between Old World and New World asters, and whittle down the genera located in Virginia. She will discuss the specialized morphology of flowers in the Asteraceae family to help with identifying these flowers in the field, highlighting asters likely to be found on the coastal plain of Virginia.
The lovely native aster we’re enjoying is no longer an Aster, taxonomically speaking! What used to be the largest, most diverse genus of 600 taxa has been split into ten different genera. To complicate this for the lay botanist, these new names are polysyllabic and unfamiliar. Asters can be difficult to identify because of the large variation and diversity of species (~ 50 in the upcoming Flora of Virginia), and due to the complex nature of the aster flowerhead.
We will also be voting for several board positions within the chapter.
The meeting is open to the public. Refreshments will be served.
| SPEAKER: Beth Chambers developed an interest in botany in Florida where she graduated from New College in Environmental Studies. She surveyed flora along the west coast of Florida at Mote Marine Laboratory before coming to Virginia, where she studied the ecology of tidal freshwater marshes and obtained a master’s degree in Environmental Science at the University of Virginia.After working as a biological consultant in the mid-Atlantic U.S. and California, Ms. Chambers moved to Connecticut and obtained a second master’s degree in Media and Educational Technology from Fairfield University. In addition to running the Herbarium of the College of William and Mary, Beth Chambers manages the Biology Department’s website and is Instructor of the EcoAmbassador course at William & Mary. She looks forward to working with our chapter as part of its new Education Committee. |