Events

    2019 Jun 26

    Bonsai Behind the Curtain: Uncovering Their Care and Cultivation

    5:30pm to 6:30pm

    Location: 

    Larz Anderson Bonsai Collection, Arnold Arboretum, 125 Arborway, Boston

    Join Manager of Plant Production, Tiffany Enzenbacher, for an evening of exploration into the oldest dwarfed plant collection in the United States. As one of the caretakers of the Arboretum's bonsai collection, Tiffany will highlight many of the procedures used by staff to maintain the health of these captivating specimens.

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    2019 Jun 23

    Get Your Hands Dirty!—Soil Science

    2:00pm to 4:00pm

    Location: 

    Hunnewell Lawn, Arnold Arboretum, 125 Arborway, Boston

    This is part of the new Science in Our Park Series. Come to the Arnold Arboretum and be a scientist! Get your hands onto scientific tools, use your observation skills and share your findings with others.

    Get Your Hands Dirty will allow you to stick your hands into the soil and really get to know it. You will have a chance to use digital probes, collect data, and then share that data with other scientists for a day.

    One adult may bring a maximum of three children; suitable for children ages five and up.

    ...

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    2019 Jun 15

    Guided Tour: Medicinal Plants at the Arnold Arboretum

    1:00pm to 2:30pm

    Location: 

    Hunnewell Building, Arnold Arboretum, 125 Arborway, Boston

    The Leventritt Shrub and Vine Garden contains a multitude of cultivated plants with culturally significant medicinal properties. However, on a casual stroll along Linden Path to the Leventritt, you will pass dozens of other plants that are often looked upon as simple weeds. Many of these plants have rich ethnobotanical histories of their own that tie us closer to our environment. Your guides will explain how these "weedy" plants came to colonize this area while touching on cultural contexts and botanical identification of these wild species—as well as the cultivated medicinal species in...

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    2019 May 26

    Dissection Dramatics! Flower Form

    2:00pm to 4:00pm

    Location: 

    Hunnewell Lawn, Arnold Arboretum, 125 Arborway, Boston

    This is part of the new Science in Our Park Series. Come to the Arnold Arboretum and be a scientist! Get your hands onto scientific tools, use your observation skills, and share your findings with others.

    Dissection Dramatics will give you ample opportunity to fiddle with microscopes, hand lenses and digital scopes. Discover the secrets contained in a flower as you pull it apart piece by piece. Then test your puzzle making abilities as you attempt to put it back together.

    One adult may bring a maximum of three children; suitable for children ages...

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    2019 May 22

    Ethnobotany at Harvard

    12:00pm to 2:00pm

    Location: 

    Harvard University Herbaria, 22 Divinity Ave., Cambridge

    Historically, plants have provided humans with most of our drugs, fibers, food, dyes, perfumes, building materials, and even musical instruments. But how has this diverse and fascinating field been studied and what has been learned? In fact, for over 100 years, Harvard has played a pivotal role in the study of human-plant interactions, leading to the creation of the field of ethnobotany.

    In this interactive lecture we will explore the science and history of some of the most important Harvard botanists and explorers through their unique specimens—now housed in the Harvard...

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    2019 May 14

    How Birds Work: Eggs

    7:00pm to 8:00pm

    Location: 

    Hunnewell Building, Arnold Arboretum, 125 Arborway, Boston

    How does an egg become an egg? Why do chickens continue to lay eggs day after day? What controls the shape of eggs? Why do eggs of different species of birds have different colors? And how strong are eggshells?

    In this talk which follows previous talks about bird flight, migration, and feathers, Lorna Gibson answers common questions about bird eggs.

    Learn more...

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    2019 Apr 23

    Film Screening: Lobster War: The Fight Over the World's Richest Fishing Grounds

    6:00pm to 8:00pm

    Location: 

    Geological Lecture Hall, 24 Oxford St., Cambridge

    Lobster War is an award-winning documentary film about a conflict between the United States and Canada over waters that both countries have claimed since the end of the Revolutionary War. The disputed 277 square miles of sea known as the Gray Zone were traditionally fished by U.S. lobstermen. But as the Gulf of Maine has warmed faster than nearly any other body of water on the planet, the area’s previously modest lobster population has surged. As a result, Canadians have begun to assert their sovereignty, warring with the Americans to claim the bounty.

    Directed...

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    2019 Apr 20

    Tree Spotters Citizen Science Program: Basic Training

    Repeats every week every Saturday until Sat Apr 27 2019 .
    10:30am to 12:00pm

    10:30am to 12:00pm

    Location: 

    Hunnewell Building Lecture Hall or Weld Hill Lecture Hall, Arnold Arboretum, Boston

    With nearly 4,000 different kinds of plants represented in the Arboretum's living collections, every day presents rich opportunities to see something new. If you enjoy learning about plants and their unique characteristics, you can contribute to science as a participant in our Tree Spotters program. This citizen science project opens a window into the Arboretum's phenology: the timing of natural events, such as the leafing out and flowering of trees in the spring and changing foliage colors in the fall. Your observations will assist Arboretum scientists in their studies of the effects of...

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    2019 Apr 17

    An Introduction to Medicinal Plants

    Repeats every week every Wednesday until Wed May 08 2019 . Also includes Sat May 11 2019.
    6:30pm to 8:30pm

    6:30pm to 8:30pm
    6:30pm to 8:30pm
    6:30pm to 8:30pm
    6:30pm to 8:30pm

    Location: 

    Hunnewell Building, Arnold Arboretum, Boston

    Have you ever wanted to be able to separate medicinal plant facts from fiction? This introductory survey course, taught by two experts in the field of ethnobotany, will reveal essential connections between both the anthropological foundations and scientific principles underlying plant-derived drugs around the world. Knowledge will be built for the non-expert, atop four essential pillars of anthropology, botany, chemistry, and pharmacology. The class will be structured to include interactive classroom exercises, the making of simple herbal remedies, and lectures. Our learning experience...

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    2019 Apr 10

    Lecture: Chasing Ants (And Their Microbes) in the Rainforest

    6:00pm

    Location: 

    Geological Lecture Hall, 24 Oxford St., Cambridge

    Microbes play critical roles in the biology and health of human beings, but we are not the only species that benefits from intimate relationships with microbes. Ants, for instance, rely on the microbial communities living in their guts to process food and make strong armor.

    Corrie Moreau will discuss this unique aspect of ant biology and what it tells us about the diversity and dominance of ants in terrestrial ecosystems, the evolutionary history of social insects, and the broad-scale evolutionary patterns of life.

    ...

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    2019 Apr 09

    Lecture: Self-Domestication in Bonobos and Other Wild Animals

    6:00pm

    Location: 

    Geological Lecture Hall, 24 Oxford St., Cambridge

    Domesticated animals such as dogs, pigs, and horses often sport floppy ears, patches of white hair, and other features that are unknown in their wild ancestors. These traits—collectively referred to by scientists as a “domestication syndrome”—are the result of breeding less aggressive individuals.

    Drawing from his new book, The Goodness Paradox (2019, Pantheon Books), Richard Wrangham will show that our cousin apes, the bonobos, also exhibit a domestication syndrome, making them the first clear example of a “wild domesticate.” Self-domestication in the wild now seems...

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    2019 Apr 02

    Living with White Sharks

    6:00pm

    Location: 

    Geological Lecture Hall, 24 Oxford St., Cambridge

    The Cape Cod white shark population has increased in recent years in response to the dramatic increase in the seal population. Shark sightings—some close to popular swimming and surfing beaches—are becoming more frequent and negative interactions between sharks and humans have become a real concern.

    Gregory Skomal has studied and tracked white sharks in the Atlantic for more than 30 years. In this lecture, he will examine the behavior, ecology, natural history, and population dynamics of this species, and how scientific research can help sharks and humans coexist in the Cape...

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    2019 Jan 27

    Conifers in Winter

    1:30pm to 3:00pm

    Location: 

    Bussey Street Gate, Arnold Arboretum, 125 Arborway, Jamaica Plain, MA 02130
    Docent Robbie Apfel leads this winter walk in an exploration of the Arboretum's conifer collection. Beginning from the Bussey Street Gate, you will be introduced to the Arboretum's grand gymnosperms, learn the botany of conifers, and hear about Hemlock Hill's evolving ecosystem. This tour will also introduce you to native and non-native conifers in the winter landscape.
     
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    2018 Dec 08

    Measure Twice, Cut Once: Introductory Tree and Shrub Pruning

    9:30am to 12:00pm

    Location: 

    Hunnewell Building, Arnold Arboretum, 125 Arborway, Jamaica Plain, MA 02130

    Instructor: Andrew Gapinski, Head of Horticulture, Arnold Arboretum

    Put down the hedge shears! Through both classroom instruction and hands-on field training, this class will include what’s, whys, and how’s of proper pruning approaches and...

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    2018 Dec 01

    Growing Woody Plants from Hardwood Cuttings

    9:00am to 12:30pm

    Location: 

    Dana Greenhouse Classroom, 1050 Centre Street, Jamaica Plain, MA 02130

    Join Manager of Plant Production Tiffany Enzenbacher to learn how to propagate woody plants from fall cuttings. Students will collect and stick cuttings of several taxa (Ilex and Pieris to name a few), and will take their propagules home. After rooting, small plants may be ready to transplant as early as next year. Post-class nurturing will be required. Fee for all...

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    2018 Nov 07

    The Secret Lives of Roots

    2:30pm to 4:00pm

    Location: 

    Hunnewell Building, Arnold Arboretum, 125 Arborway, Jamaica Plain, MA 02130

    The Arnold Arboretum is full of spectacular specimens from around the world that any visitor will appreciate. However, what they observe is only half the story. How a tree uptakes water and nutrients, stays grounded in place, stores energy, and sometimes even propagates itself, is all thanks to its roots. Join horticulturists Andrew Gapinski and Conor Guidarelli as they unearth these questions and more during an exclusive look into the extraordinary world of roots.

    ...

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    2018 Oct 27

    Fabulous Fungus Fair

    2:00pm to 4:00pm

    Location: 

    Harvard Museum of Natural History, 26 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA

    Explore the wondrous world of fungi! Join Harvard students for a closer look at the mushrooms, yeasts, and molds found in gardens, forests, labs—even in our own refrigerators. This is an opportunity to investigate museum collections and participate in hands-on activities led by Harvard students.

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