The Indiana Native Plant & Wildflower Society announces its 19th annual conference providing the know-how to help Hoosiers appreciate, grow and conserve Indiana’s rich heritage of native plants.
Set for Nov. 3, 2012 on the University of Indianapolis campus, the daylong conference will focus on two basics of botany: the identification of plants and their occurrence in nature.
“The better we can identify native plants, the better we can be advocates for them,” says Mike Homoya, state botanist/plant ecologist with the Indiana Department of Natural Resources, who had a hand in developing this year’s conference theme.
Among the featured speakers is Rob Naczi, one of the leading botanists in the world. Naczi is the Arthur J. Cronquist Curator of North American Botany at The New York Botanical Garden and is revising one of the most commonly used guides to our North American flora, Manual of Vascular Plants of the Northeastern United States and Adjacent Canada.
Also on the program are James Locklear, Director of Conservation at Lauritzen Gardens in Omaha, Nebraska, who has just written the book Phlox: A Natural History and Gardener’s Guide; Paul Rothrock, an expert on sedges and chairman of the Department of Earth and Environmental Science at Taylor University; Sally Weeks, author of Shrubs and Woody Vines of Indiana and the Midwest; Kay Yatskievych of the Missouri Botanical Garden, who is coauthoring the Indiana Vascular Plants Catalogue; and Mike Homoya, author of Wildflowers and Ferns of Indiana Forests and Orchids of Indiana.
The conference will include a book signing and sale, vendor and youth education displays, and information on the Indiana Native Plant & Wildflower Society. Also rumored to be possible is a visit by the renowned Charles Deam, Indiana’s first state forester.
What: It’s All About the Plants, 19th annual Indiana Native Plant & Wildflower Society conference.
When: 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Saturday, Nov. 3, 2012
Where: Schwitzer Student Center, University of Indianapolis
Admission/registration: open to the public. Non-members, $75 ($65 before Oct. 25, 2012); students, $35; INPAWS members, $60 ($50 before Oct. 25, 2012).
For more info: Indiana Native Plant & Wildflower Society, conference@inpaws.org
