My volunteer work for my Field Botany class this semseter was several-fold, consisting of numerous threads weaving into and adding to the web of who I am and what I do. 

First: I connected with The Bioreserve, visited, and organized a subsequent field trip there for homeschooled kids in the region. This was a learning rich field botany experience for all of us and has led to requests and coordination for future homeschool classes there, which I'm in the midst of organizing. See other posts on trips to the Bioreserve.

Second: I shared all of my field botany adventures and discoveries and learning here publically so my readers could learn with me. I share my blog on my Nature's Healing FB page and sometimes share relevent posts on other pages as well. So all of my field botany explorations have been shared widely. Look for the tab Field Botany under "categories" on the side to read all of the posts.

Third: I have included wild plant identification walks and films into Online Herbal Summer Camp 2016, one of a series of seasonal online herbal sessions I offer. For this summer session, there are nearly 1,200 people in the group, so again, plant information is shared widely. 

Here is a link to a plant identification video shared in Online Herbal Summer Camp. I am in the process of developing a new plant walk video. I have a new camera and it takes MUCH better footage!

I've also posted information and answered questions in Online Herbal Summer Camp on how to tell wild dandelion from look alikes, such as hawkweed, and how to harvest and use dandelion to make a salve with the blossoms. For the kids in Online Herbal Summer Camp, I made a dandelion movie with photos and with myself sitting in a circle of dandelions on a dock, in front of a beautiful lake, reading a story of the lifecycle of a dandelion. My daughter shared, with this new audience of nearly 1200, her video on how to identify plants in the mint family referencing Thomas Elpel's childrens' book Shanleya's Quest and showing the kids also how to make mint sun tea. Next week, my daughter and I will be sharing with the children a video of how to find wild plantain and how to use the leaves to make a plantain fairy drawing. I'll also be teaching the adults how to identify and use Plantago major.

Finally, I also visited the urban herb gardens of Underground Alchemy and had a tour and a lovely chat with owner Rebecca Hein. It was pretty amazing seeing the diversity of herbs she grows there on two empty city lots. Many herbs I recognized and knew. Others I had heard of but never seen growing, and some plants I recognized but didn't know their names until she told me. While this isn't field botany in the literal sense of plants growing in a field, it is field botany in the sense of looking at the field of botany and plant growth and preservation locally. Amongst other things, Rebecca has a lovely bed of endangered cohosh.

Class competencies: 

Diversity:
Diversity is evident in all of the botany posts I did with different plant families and species, most new to me. Oh the joy of discovery!! I'm thrilled to know beter now how to use a plant guide and, in addition to those suggested for the class, also found and bought another one on wild edibles that I love! 

Innovation:
Innovation is evident in all that I do with Online Herbal Summer Camp, creating an online herbal community where people can both learn about herbs with  a seasonal goal (this one being creating an herbal first aid kit) and learn about and explore concepts of nature connection. It draws on my diverse background in ecopscyhology, psychology, education, mindfulness, herbalism - and even this field botany class! Innovation was also evident in researching, organizing, and developing a means to pass on botany to children through the Bioreserve trips(s).

One of the best parts of the innovation of Online Herbal Summer Camp is that by reaching a wide audience I can keep the cost of the sessions low (this summer one is actually free, but that's another story) and can bring botanical knowledge and healthcare to a wide audience. For example, one woman lives in Europe in a nation that does not allow the sale of calendula cream for her eczema. She knew that in neighboring France it was widely used, albeit expensive. She was so thrilled to discover she can grow - or even purchase - calendula and simply and easily make her own calendula salve. This relates more to cultivated botanicals than wild, but it's still a good example of what happens when we think innovatively around botany and plant knowledge and how to spread it. 

Stewardship:
All that I do with herbs carries the goal of stewardship, teaching people how to use herbs and plants that grow around them or in their gardens; teaching children through organizing field trips for homeschoolers; and through the activities for children in Online Herbal Summer Camp. I'm passionate about herbalism being people's healthcare and about bridging access issues. 

Community:
Online Herbal Summer Camp = community! Homeschool classes = community. Connecting with the Bioreserve and Underground Alchemy = community building.

Based on conversation with Rebecca Hein of Underground Alchemy, I've decided we're going to start a Capial District Herbal Collective this fall, comprised of healthcare workers using herbs, that will meet monthly for a potluck and a talk/discussion. Our goals are to build community, to share knowledge, and, ultimately, to bridge access issues in order to bring herbalism more widely into the local community. I've started to put the idea out there and people are excited! There's nothing like this at all in the region!

I also met with a local Iroquios Native American herbalist who grows vast quantities of herbs and uses them in formulations that she sells. I've not yet seen her garden, but I did bring her a feverfew plant since they sprout up prolifically in my garden and don't grow in hers - with the promise of some sweet grass in return. I chatted with another homeschool mom who makes and sells herbal remedies and has done so for years. We discussed who uses herbs locally and access issues. I also discovered, on our Bioreserve trip, that she's pretty amazing at wild plant identification! Finally, I connected with a member of American Herbalist Guild that can serve as a mentor as I venture into offering a bit of clinical work locally. So herbal community building seems to be a BIG theme for me in this season! I feel much like a spider, weaving a web. And in fact, that's exciting as it's one of the goals on my website homepage here! 

​Here, families enjoy lunch on the second level of the treehouse, and enjoy their hike through the Bioreserve. I tried to only post photos here that don't give away the identity of the families since I forgot to ask permission to post photos. 

This was a rare treat! Most ash trees in NYS have been destroyed by the Emerald Ash Borer!! They used to be prolific in NY and were used to make baseball bats. I didn't think to ask how or why this one has managed to survive unscathed. 

Two kinds of bittersweet grow locally, American bittersweet or Celastrus scandens and Oriental (Chinese) bittersweet or Celastrus orbiculatus. The American vine grows quite tall, but it does not take over other plant species in the way that the Oriental variety does.

​In the first photo above, you can see the vine twisting and creeping along. It had a long end extending beyond the host plant, seeking out another host plant. Dennis and kids had fun wrapping it around a neck - vicious strangling species that it is haha!!

In the second photo you can see bittersweet trailing up a host tree, and in the third photo above you can see the results of its growth on a tree. It compresses the bark, strangling it almost, and causes the tree trunk to grow in those twisty patterns that look like it was squeezed out of a soft icecream maker. Dennis said he had torn the vines off that tree in a previous year. 

Both bittersweets have berries containing seeds that the birds, especially the blue birds, enjoy. The vines with their golden and red berries also make beautiful autumn wreaths. But if you're going to plant it, make sure you get the American species! 

Another vine that grows on a host, but is NOT invasive and does not hurt its host.. wild grapes. They abound here in NY and make excellent Tarazan-like swings for kids to enjoy.

Phragmitis are another invasive species here in NY, a common marsh grass that was introduced into the area and has taken over. They alter the biochemistry of marsh waters, push out other native plant species, and even alter what animals can live in the marsh. But here? Here is a brilliant use of the species, to make a wilderness survival shelter, weaving them between support posts. The Bioreserve is also home to a local wilderness school. Ths low shelter was then topped with longer branches/saplings and covered with leaves and/or more interwoven reeds or a tarp. The wilderness school kids sleep out in it! 

In a previous post I talked about my discovery of the Mayapple and gave more information on it. Those photos showed it in flower. It was fun to return to the Bioreserve several weeks later and see the early yellow/green fruit. At this stage, the fruit is poisonous. It ripens and is edible, but, as noted before, Dennis says the critters get to most of them before he does. 

A large beech with a smaller one growing beside it  - or "beech and son of a beech" as Dennis, the perpetual jokester, put it. He also pointed out how this is one of the few trees locally with a smooth bark trunk. He asked the kids which part of the bark contains live cells, pointing out that our skin is all alive, but the outer bark of a tree is not. Kids guessed the middle of the tree's bark. I called Helena over from a tree she was climbing, and she knew the answer: the ring right beneath the bark called the cambium is alive. I explained to everyone how the rings we count on trees are not just there for our counting convenience, but mark where, each year, the nutrients have travelled up the tree, right below the surface of the bark. Helena and I learned this from the biology textbook she requested. She's my little scientist. I guess I'd never thought previously about *why* a tree had rings to count! Of course, being the perpetually curious unschooler that she is, Helena then wanted to know how long it takes for a cycle of nutrients to travel up the bark from the roots to the top leaves and for nutrients gathered in the leaves through photosynthesis to travel down the middle of the trunk back to the bottom of the tree. Good ole' Google has failed us on this one, so if you know the answer, do tell!! 

The Bioreserve contains some amazing examples of Ginkgo biloba. Dennis explained that Ginkgo is not really a tree, but you can see, from the image of him looking for seeds to show the kids in front of the Ginkgo, that it sure *looks* like a tree. It's HUGE! But apparently Ginkgo is not an angiosperm, instead containing an odd plant sperm that has the ability to swim. Due to this and other factors, Ginkgo is in a class of its own. Literally. In fact, Ginkgo also has its very own phylum of which it is the singular plant in it! Here is its taxonomy for those interested. 

In the fourth picture above, Dennis is pointing out another distinctive feature of Ginkgo: its leaves grow directly off of the trunk rather than on branches or stems of their own.

Ginkgo samples have been found dating back over three million years in China, if Wikipedia is at all reliable. In any case, it was around with the dinasaurs, making it one of our oldest surviving plant species. Dennis explained that it has outlasted every parasite and pest and is extremely hardy. 

He also told us that when people first started importing it as an ornamental for its exotic shaped foliage, they didn't know the difference between female and male species. In fact, when the plant is young you can't tell - except with lab work that didn't exist back in the 19th century. Eventually it became quite useful to differentiate and only import male species. In fact, that's all you can buy today at a plant nursery. Why? The female produces a fruit that has a very unpleasant, pungent odor! The Bioreserve is one of the few places around (maybe the only?) that has both male and female species. As a result, it abounds in itty, bitty, baby Ginkgos! (Is it ok if I think they're cute?!) In the fifth photo above is a sprouting Ginkgo seed and in the sixth photo are a few of the many Ginkgo babies.

In addition to being an ancient and just plain cool survivor, Ginkgo biloba is also highly medicinal. Maybe its ancient wisdom helps us to live and survive in this world. Touted as "the brain herb" it's great for memory, Alzheimers, dementia, Raynaud's symptom, anxiety, glaucoma, and more. 

The thorns on this tree were just massive!! GASP!

Needless to say, the kids found the thorns pretty cool! 

My daughter Helena pictured in the front here brought back a leaf all folded up and sewn together with some sort of insect webbing. Inside was a bit of what looked sort of like dryer lint. It turned out, under the miscroscope, to be super spongy. In the bottom photo above, she's fascinated by poking it and watching the effect on the big screen. We don't know what the spongy stuff was, but at this age it's just great that the kids are excited about exploring and discovering, having a blast with science, fascinated by the invisible world. The fact that many microscopes were hooked up to large computer monitors was really amazing, because the kids were able to explore together.

One of the kids brought back this leaf to better examine the little red spore thing sticking out of it. That was pretty cool magnified, but nothing compared to what else was found. On the edge of the leaf were microscopic hairs, and on the edge of one of those hairs was a little microscopic creature. Click on this link here to view it on video. While it goes in and out of focus, it's short and you can really see the invisible critter co-existing with the leaf. And most fun of all... you can hear the excitment of discovery in everyone's voices!

Organizing the field trip was one of several parts of my volunteer work for this Field Botany class. It involved numerous hours of time in posting to the homeschool FB page to guage interest and a preferred day; checking that time with Dennis; posting a place where people could register; rescheduling for weather; and finaly the day of the fieldtrip itself, during which we spent about four hours at the Bioreserve exploring, learning, and sharing knowledge. 

Class competencies: 
Diversity: We viewed a great diversity of plant species on the Bioreserve fieldtrip. We also saw how various species imported into a new environment will act. This was especially interesting since the Corning Estate used to have extensive gardens and now was all growing mostly wild. Diversity was also seen back in the lab when we looked at the invisible single celled organism living on the leaf and examined pond water, jewelweed liquid, pinecones, ticks, and many other parts of the ecosystem. 

Innovation: Innovation was exhibited in finding the Bioreserve, organizing the field trip; and using both microscopes and field work to interest children in botany.

Stewardship: I think one of the things that stood out most to me was seeing the impact of the Oriental bittersweet and learning about how the phragmites can destroy an ecopsystem. This drove home the need for stewardship and healthy ecosystems. Also, I think anytime you get kids outside, loving and enjoying nature, you're doing great work for future stewardship and preservation!

Community: This field trip was intensely community oriented! I developed a relationship first with Dennis and then brought together homeschoolers from about an hour radius, some of whom knew each other and many who didn't, to the Bioreserve. We talked about what sort of learning experiences we'd like there in the fall, and I'll be further organizing a class or classes - either weekly in October and/or perhaps a monthly class. 

In conclusion, the Bioreserve fieldtrip was an amazing experience and garnered wide praise from numerous families. What I shared above is only touching on the surface of all that we saw and experienced. There was also an old orchard and white cedars grown ornamentally around the old estate now towering overhead. There were mulberry trees, wildflowers, and of course animals. There was talk of picking up on a study U. Albany had done in conjunction with the Bioreserve, looking at water quality flowing into two ravines, one where water drains off a highway and one with natural water flow. The water at the point of convergence would also be interesting to study. The Bioreserve is indeed a diverse place for learning in more ways than one!

​I'll leave you with one final picture, taken from my car window on the way out, of a cedar waxwing, enjoying a few underripe mulberries. 

​