All lectures will be held on the second Wednesday of the month at 6 PM ET, both in person at the Pier 57 Daffodil Classroom and on Zoom.
NOTE: The October 7th lecture will be held ONLINE ONLY.
September 11 – James Lendemer, New York State Museum.
“Abraham Halsey and the New York Lyceum: Uncovering the origins of New York botany“
Register for in person here.
Register for Zoom here.
Abraham Halsey was a founding member of the New York Lyceum and published the first checklist of New York City lichens in 1823. It was the first work focused on lichens in North America. Halsey’s collection, along with the rest of the Lyceum’s vast holdings, has been believed destroyed in a tragic 1866 fire that consumed a city block of Manhattan. Join Dr. James Lendemer as we resurrect the legacy of this pioneering naturalist, his rediscovered herbarium and shed light on the little-known origins of New York botany. The talk will highlight the wealth of irreplaceable information in New York State botanical collections, and the urgent need to ensure these are preserved, digitized and most importantly, continuously restudied.
October 9 – Brad Oberle, New York Botanical Garden
“Rooted in Resilience: Belowground Variation in the World’s Premier Urban Research Forest“
Register for Zoom here.
Climate change mitigation and adaptation require healthy forests, especially in cities. As the world’s first urban old growth research forest, the Thain Family Forest at The New York Botanical Garden can provide an invaluable reference for regional forest ecosystem monitoring. In this lecture, Dr. Oberle will summarize the history of research in the Thain Forest and describe recent work to compare variability and change both above and belowground.
Brad Oberle is an Associate Curator at the New York Botanical Garden. His work leverages the NYBG’s collections to address global problems of climate change and biodiversity loss, especially in forests.
November 13 – Lydia Paradiso, Natural Areas Conservancy.
“Collection, Collaboration, and Community Science: a History of Local Botany in New York City“
Register for In-Person Here
Register for Zoom Here
For centuries, the diverse flora and ecosystems of NYC have captured and held fast the attention of vocational and avocational botanists alike. Lydia Paradiso will trace the history and evolution of the study of NYC flora from prehistory to present, organized into six major time periods. She will explore the effects of broader social, political, and scientific trends; and highlight the importance of collaborations between professional and amateur botanists, and of the continued inspiration and cultivation of successive generations of local botanists.
Lydia Paradiso recently earned her PhD from a joint program between the CUNY Graduate Center and the New York Botanical Garden, where she studied the flora of New York City, and phylogenetics of the deciduous conifer genus Larix. Most recently, she worked as a Supervising Field Botanist with the Natural Areas Conservancy, collecting data on forest conditions across all five boroughs as part of a citywide Ecological Assessment. Previously, she managed the NYC EcoFlora project, NYBG’s community science program, and is the current President of the Torrey Botanical Society. Lydia holds a BS in Bioinformatics from the New Jersey Institute of Technology and an MSc in Plant Biodiversity and Taxonomy from the University of Edinburgh.
Our past lectures can be viewed on YouTube.
See a list of previous speakers and lectures here.
