We are pleased to continue our Distinguished Lecture Series, now in its 17th season. On Sunday, April 7, 2024 at 4:00 p.m., Dr. Joan Edwards, Samuel Fessenden Clarke Professor of Biology at Williams College, will discuss “Conserving New England’s Amazing Spring Flora.”
April brings a unique group of flowers to the New England landscape. Flowers including spring beauties, trilliums, hepaticas, violets, and Dutchman’s breeches dot the forest floor taking advantage of the brief period when sunlight reaches the ground unimpeded by leaves of canopy trees. These ephemerals bloom early, set seed, and often disappear completely until the next spring. Globally, both flowers and their visitors face risk of extinction. Knowing how these flowers work is critical to preserving these gems in our landscape. In this talk, Joan Edwards explores the natural history of spring ephemerals with a focus on floral design, how flowers interact with their spring insect visitors, and how they harness resiliency to deal with the uncertainty of changing climate.
About the presenter: Joan Edwards is the Samuel Fessenden Clarke Professor of Biology at Williams College. She is a botanist with a special focus on ultrafast plant movements and the conservation of flowers and their insect visitors.
Now in its 17th season, the Distinguished Lecture Series is organized and hosted by Dr. Jeremy Yudkin. Dr. Yudkin is a resident of the Berkshires and Professor of Music and Co-Director of the Center for Beethoven Research at Boston University. Every summer at the Lenox Library he presents the pre-concert lectures for the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s Tanglewood season.