Why is wild flora important?
Join us for lectures by experts in the botanical field at venues around the City. All events are FREE and open to the public.
Friday May 2nd, 4:30 pm - 6:30 pm, New York University
“Native Wildflowers of New York City”
Monday, May 5th, 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm, Arsenal of New York City Parks & Recreation
“The Challenges of City Living”
Wednesday, May 7th, 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm, Horticultural Society of New York
“Conservation of Our Floristic Diversity”
Friday, May 9th, 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm, The Battery Conservancy
“Native Plants in the Landscape”
Speaker Bios
Friday May 2nd, 4:30 pm - 6:30 pm
New York University
“Native Wildflowers of New York City”
Discover the City’s 25,000 green acres—filled with majestic trees, wildflowers, grasses and ferns— the wild, unplanted thread in the Big Apple’s ecological fabric. Learn what makes a plant native and why local flora is important. Explore how life in the five boroughs means it’s not easy being green due to characteristics of urban forests and threats to indigenous flora. We’ll also discuss what you can do, including how to go native in the garden.
Speaker Marielle Anzelone is a botanist, landscape designer and founder of NYC Wildflower Week. This introduction to the flora of the five boroughs will be hosted by the Wallerstein Collaborative for Urban Environmental Education at NYU.
Space is limited.
RSVP by email to kathleen.oliver@nyu.edu or call 212-992-9362.
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Monday, May 5th, 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm
The Arsenal of New York City Parks & Recreation
In Central Park (at 64th Street and Fifth Avenue), 3rd Floor
“The Challenges of City Living”
Speakers: Dr. Richard Pouyat – U.S. Forest Service, “Effects of Urbanization on NYC Ecosystems,” Dr. Andrew Greller – Torrey Botanical Society, “Plant Communities of Long Island’s North Shore, Steve Glenn – Brooklyn Botanic Garden, “Losses and Gains in NYC Flora”.
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Wednesday, May 7th, 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm
Horticultural Society of New York
148 West 37th Street, 13th Floor (between Broadway & 7th Avenue)
“Conservation of Our Floristic Diversity”
Speakers: Edward Toth – Greenbelt Native Plant Center, “Local Genotypes in Fragmented Landscapes”, Dr. Richard Lynch – Sweetbay Magnolia Conservancy, “Rare Plants of NYC”; Dr. Paul Mankiewicz – Gaia Institute, “Conserving the Natural Heritage of the Five Boroughs”.
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Friday, May 9th, 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm
The Battery Conservancy
1 New York Plaza (at Water and Whitehall Streets)
“Native Plants in the Landscape”
(This lecture will be proceeded by a plant walk through The Battery Conservancy’s “Gardens of Remembrance” at 4:30 pm. See “Botanical Walks” for more details)
Speakers: Dr. Steven Clemants – Brooklyn Botanic Garden, “ The Role of Wildflowers”, Dr. Jean Marie Hartman – Rutgers University, “Restoring the Urban Landscape”; Warrie Price – The Battery Conservancy, “The Battery Example”.
Speaker Bios
Dr. Andrew M. Greller is Professor of Biology Emeritus at Queens College, CUNY and is a member and officer of a number of scientific societies. During his 30-year career, he taught twelve college and university-level courses on botany, ecology and bioclimatology. Most recently, he taught World Vegetation at in the graduate program in Biology at CUNY.
Greller has published extensively on local flora and vegetation, and leads botanical field trips and presents popular lectures on a wide range of botanical and ecological topics. He has received numerous honors, including National Science Foundation awards and a Fulbright Senior Lectureship. He received his Ph. D from Columbia University in 1967.
Dr. Paul S. Mankiewicz is the Executive Director of the Gaia Institute and received a Ph.D. in Plant Sciences from the CUNY/NY Botanical Gardens Joint Program. He holds patents on a modular composting system, lightweight green roof plant growth media, as well as storm water treatment technologies and a biogeochemical reactor for breaking down dioxins and PCBs. Past president of the Torrey Botanical Society, Dr. Mankiewicz is Treasurer of the Soil & Water Conservation District Board of New York City.
Dr. Richard Pouyat is an ecologist/soil scientist at the United States Department of Agriculture Forest Service, and is currently a co-principal investigator of the Baltimore Ecosystem Study; a Long Term Ecological Research site funded by the National Science Foundation. He received his Ph.D in ecology from Rutgers University in 1992 and an M.S. in forest soils and B.S. in forest biology at the College of Environmental Science and Forestry in 1983 and 1980, respectively.
Dr. Pouyat has broad scientific interests and has used his extensive training in ecology, soil science, and biogeochemistry to investigate urban ecosystems and the effect of urban sprawl on natural systems. He has a strong interest in applying research to the solution of contemporary problems in natural resource management and policy issues, and to integrate the ecological and social sciences.
Edward Toth has been the director of the Greenbelt Native Plant Center since 1998. The 13-acre nursery, greenhouse and seed bank facility works to conserve native plant species and is operated by the City of New York, Department of Parks and Recreation.
Toth served for ten years as the Director of Landscape Management for Prospect Park in Brooklyn, New York. He has written several articles on ecological management of urban natural areas and received a Merit Award from the American Society of Landscape Architects for his role in the Ravine project in Prospect Park. In April of this year his policy paper, “A Call to Establish a National System of Regional Seed Banks and Seed Networks” will be published in the online journal Urban Habitats.
Steven Clemants, founder of the New York Metropolitan Flora program, has been studying the flora of the greater New York City region for many years. He has worked at Brooklyn Botanic Garden for nearly two decades in a variety of roles including Researcher, Director of Science and Vice President of Science. Together with Carol Gracie, he wrote "Wildflowers in the Field and Forest" a field guide to wildflowers in the northeastern United States published by Oxford University Press in 2006.
Warrie Price
In her capacity as president of The Battery Conservancy, an organization she founded in 1994, Warrie has built partnerships with city, state, federal agencies. Along with these partners and other board members, $85 million has been raised to rebuild the Battery's 25 waterfront acres and revitalize its treasured landmark, the Castle Clinton National Monument. Today, the Castle and park annually host over 5 million visitors and 12 million commuters. She is also Director of New York State's Harbor Park Heritage Area and the New York City Parks Department Administrator of the Battery.
Warrie serves on the board of the Metropolitan Waterfront Alliance and, since 1986, on the board of Scenic Hudson. Warrie was a founding director in 1983 of the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center in Austin, Texas, created to champion the use of native plants along public access ways and in urban landscapes.
Sigrid Gray is the Director of Horticulture for The Battery Conservancy at The Battery, which includes 5-acres of water conservation perennial plantings by landscape designer Piet Oudolf, to double by 2010, a native wildflower meadow planted above the Battery Park Underpass tunnel, a perennial nursery, and composting partnership with Battery Park City Parks. Sigrid came to Battery in 1997 from Smithsonian Institution Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum horticulture with expertise in public park horticulture.
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