• ABOUT
    • Our Mission and Vision
    • Our Board
    • Our Partners
    • Our Staff
    • In the News
    • Blog
    • Join Our Mailing List
    • Visit Us
    • Contact Us
  • EVENTS
  • ART
    • Gallery >
      • Current & Upcoming Exhibitions
      • Past Exhibitions
    • BASE - Brushwood Art Supply Exchange
    • Classes >
      • Botanical Art Academy
      • Create and Sip Classes
      • Drawing Fundamentals for Beginners
      • Make With Me Classes
    • Calls for Art
  • MUSIC
  • WELLNESS
    • 2023 Nature Explorer Backpack Project
    • Health, Equity, and Nature Accelerator
    • Drip & Culture - On the Grounds
    • At Ease: Art and Nature for Veterans
    • It's A W.I.N. - Programming for Community
    • Senior Wellness
  • RENTALS
  • SUPPORT
    • Donate
    • Our Sponsors
BRUSHWOOD CENTER
  • ABOUT
    • Our Mission and Vision
    • Our Board
    • Our Partners
    • Our Staff
    • In the News
    • Blog
    • Join Our Mailing List
    • Visit Us
    • Contact Us
  • EVENTS
  • ART
    • Gallery >
      • Current & Upcoming Exhibitions
      • Past Exhibitions
    • BASE - Brushwood Art Supply Exchange
    • Classes >
      • Botanical Art Academy
      • Create and Sip Classes
      • Drawing Fundamentals for Beginners
      • Make With Me Classes
    • Calls for Art
  • MUSIC
  • WELLNESS
    • 2023 Nature Explorer Backpack Project
    • Health, Equity, and Nature Accelerator
    • Drip & Culture - On the Grounds
    • At Ease: Art and Nature for Veterans
    • It's A W.I.N. - Programming for Community
    • Senior Wellness
  • RENTALS
  • SUPPORT
    • Donate
    • Our Sponsors

Interested in Field Botany?

7/16/2014

0 Comments

 
Picture
Glenn Adelson, PhD, leading an Introduction to Botany class at Ryerson Woods in the spring of 2014.
We recently invited our friend and frequent nature seminar instructor Glenn Adelson, chair of the Environmental Studies Program at Lake Forest College, to share his favorite books for identifying plants in our region.  Here are four books he recommends you have on your bookshelf and with you in the field to get familiar with our region's flora.

Floyd Swink and Gerould Wilhelm, Plants of the Chicago Region, 4 ed.
We are very lucky to have a book like this dedicated to our region. The habitat and plant associates information is essential. It will be frustrating for a beginner to try to key plants out, but it is well worth the effort to learn. Make ample use of the glossary while learning.

Thomas Antonio and Susanne Masi, The Sunflower Family in the Upper Midwest
The Compositae (also correctly called the Asteraceae) is the flowering plant family with the most species in flower in our area in the summer and fall. This book provides an easy to use set of symbols, based upon inflorescence color and presence or absence of disc and ray flowers to get you to the species you’re trying to figure out. Excellent photographs and nice natural history essays.

Merel Black and and Emmet Judziewicz, Wildflowers of Wisconsin and the Great Lakes Region
A very good companion to Swink and Wilhelm, as you can often talk yourself into believing you have the right plant when using a key. I often check the pictures and descriptions in Black and Judziewicz immediately after keying out a plant in Swink and Wilhelm, because it’s far more difficult to talk yourself into a mistaken identification when you have a picture in front of you.

Carol Gracie, Spring Wildflowers of the Northeast
An astonishingly beautiful and deeply researched book treating many of our woodland spring wildflowers. Its strength is the amount of depth given to each species it treats, which leads, of course to its weakness, which is how few species are accommodated. The macro photography is the best I’ve ever seen in a botany book.

Glenn will be teaching "Flora of the Autumn Prairie" this fall.  Classes will meet three consecutive Tuesday evenings (5:30-7:30pm) starting September 9. Participants will explore the profusion of yellow and purple wildflowers dominating the late summer prairie. We'll learn plant biology, as we investigate the wide range of aster, goldenrod, mint and sunflower species, as well as the prairie grasses.  We'll also explore the relationship between plants and their environments. Includes field trips to other preserves.  To register, click here (scroll down to Sept. 9).  Glenn will also be teaching a nature seminar on "Endangered Species & Endangered Languages" in October.

Glenn Adelson is the chair of the Environmental Studies Program at Lake Forest College, Chicago’s national liberal arts college. He teaches several field botany courses, as well as Evolution, Ecology, and Environment; Endangered Species and Endangered Languages; The Environmental Connections between Chicago and New Orleans; Introduction to Environmental Studies; Troubled World Geography; Botanical Imperialism; and Poetry and Nature. Glenn taught for fifteen years at Harvard University, where he became the only Harvard teacher to twice win the campus-wide Levenson Award for teaching. Glenn has a Ph.D. in organismic and evolutionary biology from Harvard and a J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School.
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Subscribe

    Author

    This blog is written by the staff and partners of Brushwood Center at Ryerson Woods

    Archives

    February 2022
    April 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    January 2020
    November 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    November 2018
    April 2018
    May 2017
    April 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    August 2015
    July 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    January 2015
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Picture
21850 N. Riverwoods Rd.
​Riverwoods, IL 60015
224.633.2424 info@brushwoodcenter.org

ABOUT BRUSHWOOD
BECOME A PARTNER
VOLUNTEER AND JOB OPPORTUNITIES
Brushwood Center at Ryerson Woods is committed to enabling the participation and enjoyment of our programming and events for all visitors. At Brushwood Center, you will have open access to accessible parking and entrance to the house, a gender neutral bathroom, and changing tables.

If you require certain accommodations in order to observe or attend our events, or have questions regarding accessibility of our facilities, please contact our Director of Public Programs and Music, Parker Nelson, at pnelson@brushwoodcenter.org or at (224) 633-2424 ext. 1.

Programming and events at Brushwood Center are available to everyone, including but not limited to age, disability, gender, marital status, national origin, race, religion, and sexual orientation.​


Site Photography by: In Life Photography, Michael Kardas Photography, Ewa Pasek Photography, and Brushwood Staff​

Subscribe to Our Newsletter

​OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
Monday - Thursday & Saturday: 10am - 3pm
Sunday: 1pm - 3pm
and by appointment 
  • ABOUT
    • Our Mission and Vision
    • Our Board
    • Our Partners
    • Our Staff
    • In the News
    • Blog
    • Join Our Mailing List
    • Visit Us
    • Contact Us
  • EVENTS
  • ART
    • Gallery >
      • Current & Upcoming Exhibitions
      • Past Exhibitions
    • BASE - Brushwood Art Supply Exchange
    • Classes >
      • Botanical Art Academy
      • Create and Sip Classes
      • Drawing Fundamentals for Beginners
      • Make With Me Classes
    • Calls for Art
  • MUSIC
  • WELLNESS
    • 2023 Nature Explorer Backpack Project
    • Health, Equity, and Nature Accelerator
    • Drip & Culture - On the Grounds
    • At Ease: Art and Nature for Veterans
    • It's A W.I.N. - Programming for Community
    • Senior Wellness
  • RENTALS
  • SUPPORT
    • Donate
    • Our Sponsors