• Saturday AM, August 21. Bill Westrate will guide us through the diverse habitats at scenic Crane Pond State Game Area in Cass County.
   
• Saturday AM, September 11.  Lynn Steil will lead us in a search for ferns on the Edward Lowe Foundation lands, also in Cass County. A few years ago, we visited the Lowe property in the spring. Now we’ll return to see it as autumn approaches. More than 15 species of ferns have been identified on the property.

• Saturday AM, October 2 – Ken Kirton will help us explore the Pretty Lake woodlands and lakeshore, a coastal plain marsh.
• Saturday, October 9, 12:30 AM – MBC Fall State meeting at Aquinas College. See Fall Arisaema for details.
• Monday, November 15, 7 PM, Oshtemo Public Library – Barbara Mead, Assistant State Archaeologist, will present "What Archeologists Learn from Plants."
• Monday, December 6, 6:30 PM, Markin Glen House – Christmas Potluck with members slide show. Now is not too early to begin putting together your slides and photos to share at our holiday get-together.

   

2003-2004  Meetings

• Tuesday, November 18,  2003  

  Frederick W. Case II,  Author of Orchids of the Western Great Lakes Region and a founding member of the Michigan Botanical Club, will present "North American Native Orchids".  Primarily interested in field work, Mr. Case has studied North American orchids not only in the Great Lakes region, but also in Alaska, the Rocky Mountains, the Cascade Mountains, Newfoundland, the Appalachians and the southeastern U. S.  He has taught and studied botany and ecology since the 1950's.  He has served as a Fellow and Research Associate of the Cranbrook Institute of Science, as an Adjunct Research Investigator at the Matthaei Botanical Gardens, as an advisor to the DNR's Endangered and Threatened Species Program, and as a trustee for the Michigan Chapter of the Nature Conservancy.

   

• Monday, December 8, 2003   6:30 p.m.  Markin Glen House, North Westnedge Ave.Christmas Potluck

  Patrick Fields.President of the Michigan Botanical Foundation and immediate past president of the Michigan Botanical Club, will add to the holiday spirit by presenting "For the Love of Chocolate"  at our annual Christmas potluck.  Pat teaches biological and other sciences at Olivet College.  This is your chance to sample many different kinds of chocolate, the botanical intricacies, the chemical make-up, how various types of chocolate are made, and hear quirky tales of growing and producing one of the world's  favorite treats.  Pat brings much personal experience and many visual aids from his years of research on the subject.
   
• Monday, January 19, 7 PM Eric Thobaben – Wetlands Ecology, Oshtemo Branch, Kalamazoo Public Library Eric Thobaben, an MSU doctoral student, will share results of his several years of wetlands study at the Kellogg Biological Station. By describing wetlands from a landscape perspective, he will offer insight on the distribution of different wetland types in southwestern Michigan and will elaborate on the effect of hydrology on the plant communities that inhabit these varied environments. He will illustrate his talk with his photos of the plant life in his study areas. You may recall that last spring Eric led the Chapter on a wonderful and informative hike through one of his favorite research areas, the "Starflower Swamp" at Yankee Springs. Eric is nearing completion of his doctoral research program. He received his B.S. in Zoology from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. He looks forward to a career in teaching or research.

   

• Monday, February 16, 7 PM Mike Penskar – Adventures of a Michigan Field Botanist, Oshtemo Branch, Kalamazoo Public Library.    Mike Penskar, Botany Program Leader since 1988 for the Michigan Natural Features Inventory, will discuss the work and findings of MNFI, with special emphasis on coastal plain disjunct plant communities. Mike is responsible for maintaining the statewide database for more than 400 listed and tracked rare plant species.. He has authored the Federal Recovery Plans for the Michigan monkey-flower and Houghton’s goldenrod and is a member of the federal recovery team for the dwarf lake iris and Pitcher’s thistle. He will describe for us some of the work he does with plant inventory and research projects, including those targeting coastal plain marshes and lake plain prairies and his more recent work on the floristic and biological diversity in several riparian systems in southern Lower Michigan and the long-term ecological and population monitoring of Hall’s bulrush in SW Michigan.

 

• Monday, March 15, 7 PM Laura Strehlow – The Wild Gourd: Intraspecies Gene Flow & Ethnobotany, Oshtemo Branch, Kalamazoo Public Library.    Laura Strehlow, WMU biological sciences master’s candidate, will present the research and findings of her project on the wild gourd (Cucurbita pepo). Her research included participating in a survey of the southeastern U.S. for wild gourd populations and testing for the incidence of viruses. Then over two years at the Kellogg Biological Station, she conducted field tests that involved crossing genetically-modified, virus-resistant domestic squash with wild gourds, inoculating the wild gourds with a virus and observing effects on wild type fitness. Laura will also comment on the background and ethnobotany of the species. Laura received her B.S. in Pharmacy and B.A. in Botany at the University of Washington, Seattle. She continues to work as a pharmacist as she completes her master’s work. She plans to go on for a Ph.D. In 2003, Laura was selected for the Southwestern Chapter’s Spring Foray Scholarship.

  Tuesday, April 20, 7 PM.  Travels South -- The Cape Floral Kingdom & the Antarctic 2003 Total Solar Eclipse, Oshtemo Branch, Kalamazoo Public Library.  Kalman and Becky Csia will report on their recent trip to Cape Town and Antarctica. An astronomical journey to the November 2003 total solar eclipse in Antarctica opened the way to an unexpected botanical adventure in the Cape Town area, home of the Cape Floral Kingdom, the smallest but richest of the world’s six floristic kingdoms. The Cape Floral Kingdom, which is confined to the tip of South Africa, contains over 8500 species, nearly 70% of which are endemic. Cape Town, which served as the jumping off point for this first ever eclipse expedition to Antarctica, also sustains a little known, but remarkable historical connection between astronomy and botany.

  Please note this program is on a Tuesday.

Field Trips 2003

• Saturday AM, September 20 - Bill Martinus will show us the beautiful late summer wildflowers and sedges at the Southwest Michigan Land Conservancy's Jeptha Lake Fen Preserve in Columbia Township, Van Buren County.
• Saturday AM, October 4 - Led by Paul Olexia, we will hunt for autumn mushrooms at the Southwest Michigan Land Conservancy's Hultmark Preserve, Van Buren County