From kathy at fred.net Thu Nov 2 10:15:42 2017 From: kathy at fred.net (Kathy Bilton) Date: Thu, 2 Nov 2017 11:15:42 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [BSW] On Tuesday, November 7 - Global Genome Initiative for Gardens Message-ID: Remember, the December holiday banquet will take place on WEDNESDAY, December 6. An online sign-up sheet will soon be available. ___________________________________________________________________ This coming Tuesday, November 7 at 7 p.m., Morgan Gostel will be speaking about: The Global Genome Initiative for Gardens: unlocking the potential of living collections for genomics in the 21st Century He is a postdoc with the Global Genome Initiative. Location: VZ Conference Room (WG 33) Ground Floor of the West Wing, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, 10th St. and Constitution Avenue NW, Washington, DC. Please email Erika Gardner at the address gardnere at si.edu to arrange for a pass to get to the meeting room. Pre-meeting dinner: 5:30 P.M. at the Elephant & Castle Pub and Restaurant, 1201 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W., Washington. Phone 202-347-7707. The restaurant is diagonally across from the Old Post Office Pavilion at 12th and Pennsylvania, a few blocks from the Museum, with Federal Triangle the nearest Metro station, and Metro Center also nearby. From kathy at fred.net Mon Nov 6 17:46:58 2017 From: kathy at fred.net (Kathy Bilton) Date: Mon, 6 Nov 2017 18:46:58 -0500 (EST) Subject: [BSW] Reminder: next BSW meeting tomorrow - Tuesday, November 7 Message-ID: Our 2017 Holiday "Banquet" will take place on December 6, a WEDNESDAY, rather than our usual Tuesday. The sign-up sheet is here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1RBixwitzhqsemzOOoUUW2wi4zwI_u8kzOTWmH-MV72Q/edit _________________________________________________________________________ Tuesday, November 7 at 7 p.m., Morgan Gostel will be speaking about: The Global Genome Initiative for Gardens: unlocking the potential of living collections for genomics in the 21st Century He is a postdoc with the Global Genome Initiative. Location: VZ Conference Room (WG 33) Ground Floor of the West Wing, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, 10th St. and Constitution Avenue NW, Washington, DC. Please email Erika Gardner at the address gardnere at si.edu to arrange for a pass to get to the meeting room. Pre-meeting dinner: 5:30 P.M. at the Elephant & Castle Pub and Restaurant, 1201 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W., Washington. Phone 202-347-7707. The restaurant is diagonally across from the Old Post Office Pavilion at 12th and Pennsylvania, a few blocks from the Museum, with Federal Triangle the nearest Metro station, and Metro Center also nearby. From kathy at fred.net Thu Nov 30 11:02:21 2017 From: kathy at fred.net (Kathy Bilton) Date: Thu, 30 Nov 2017 12:02:21 -0500 (EST) Subject: [BSW] December 17, 2017 Annual Winter Solstice Field Trip and Hooley Message-ID: at Mattawoman Wildlands at Chapman Forest, Charles County, MD Sunday, December 17, 2017 - 10:00 am - 4:00 pm Field trip co-sponsored by the Maryland Native Plant Society, Mattawoman Watershed Society, Potowmack Chapter of the Virginia Native Plant Society, and the Botanical Society of Washington. Leaders: Rod Simmons, Jim Long, Alan Ford, and Robin Firth Celebrate the beginning of the winter season at Mattawoman Wildlands at Chapman Forest (the vast section of Chapman Forest South abutting Mattawoman Wildlands) with its spectacular scenery and remarkable diversity of native plants, wildlife, and natural communities! It has been 8 ? years since we last visited this forest, for a jointly sponsored Summer Solstice Field Trip. The south tributary of Chapman Forest South is a pristine, spring-fed stream that begins as a series of acidic seeps and Magnolia Bogs and flows through steep, forested ravines to Mattawoman Creek. We will walk along the floodplain of this stream from near its convergence with Mattawoman Creek and proceed upstream a ways through gradual elevation changes to upland Oak-Heath Forest at the summit of the gravelly ridge. This is a remote, wild area with a great diversity of wildlife (migratory fish spawn in the stream and bobcat have been observed, among many others). This section of Chapman Forest is also a designated Important Bird Area (IBA). In addition to discovering new things (we need to update our flora lists!), we should see a diversity of widely disparate flora, including the state-rare Deciduous Holly (Ilex decidua); Spinulose Wood Fern (Dryopteris carthusiana), montane disjunct Staghorn Clubmoss (Lycopodium clavatum) atop the ridge, and many species of evergreen ferns; White Bear Sedge (Carex albursina) and old-age Bitternut Hickory (Carya cordiformis) in outcrops of Shell-Marl Ravine Forest; large, old Willow Oak (Quercus phellos) and other bottomland species in Coastal Plain Oak Floodplain Swamps; American Mistletoe (Phoradendron leucarpum ssp. leucarpum); and a diversity of trees and shrubs. Most of the vegetation here is typical of the Coastal Plain, but some sections of the south tributary pass through beds of calcareous marine sands and marl, which give rise to a distinctive flora with montane elements. These ravines of calcareous sands and marl beds comprise a globally rare natural community called Shell-Marl Ravine Forest, coined by Harvard botanist M.L. Fernald in the 1930s after discovering similar forest communities in the Virginia tidewater region to the south. This community type occurs only on the Coastal Plain where river bluffs and deep ravines over millennia have exposed underlying calcareous and glauconitic marine sands and marl beds deposited during the Paleocene, Eocene, and Miocene epochs when the area was a shallow sea at the western edge of the Atlantic Ocean. The Brightseat and Aquia Formations are the prominent underlying strata in this section of Chapman Forest. The combination of deep ravines, calcareous soils, and close proximity to the Potomac River has produced a remarkable flora predominately composed of species typical of the inner Piedmont and carbonate areas of the Appalachians that are otherwise rare to absent on the Coastal Plain, especially in association. The forested section comprising most of the ravines and rolling valleys between Mount Aventine and Glymont at Chapman State Park (Chapman Forest North) is considered to be Maryland?s largest and finest example of this natural community type. All of Chapman Forest is a fascinating and regionally unique meeting ground for plants with a primary range in the inner Piedmont and mountains and those of the southern Coastal Plain. Field trip is free and open to non-members. Registration is not required. For ARMN members, this event will apply towards advanced training hours in botany, dendrology, forest ecology, and geology. For more information on the natural communities of Chapman Forest, see Forest Communities and Geology of Washington and Vicinity, pp. 30-38, at the City of Alexandria Flora and Natural Communities webpage at http://alexandriava.gov/22560. For more information on Mattawoman Wildlands at Chapman Forest and Mattawoman Creek, see the excellent webpage at Mattawoman Watershed Society. http://www.mattawomanwatershedsociety.org/ Bring: Wear sturdy shoes and bring lunch or snacks and water. Most of the walk traverses rolling, fairly open forest and along some trails, though some steep grades and damp areas will occasionally be encountered. Directions: Take Indian Head Highway (Rt. 210) south from Capital Beltway (495). Proceed south on Rt. 210 for app. 15 miles. Continue on Rt. 210 to the Rt. 227 intersection at Bryans Road (McDonald's, Burger King, and shopping center on right and large CVS and builders supply will be on left) - don't take Prince George?s County versions of Rt. 227 many miles before this intersection! Turn left at Rt. 227 and proceed south for approximately 3-4 miles. Slow down as the road begins to descend down the big hill to Mattawoman Creek (Lamont's will be on the left about here) and be prepared to turn right just after the stream crossing at Buteaux Crossing and before the abandoned railroad tracks. Parking area will be on the right at the railroad tracks. We'll meet in this main parking lot. For overflow parking, there is the also the area very near Mattawoman Creek opposite the parking lot above on the east side of Rt. 227, but it is small, often muddy, and dangerous to turn in and out of. Parking along the road is not an option. Carpooling is encouraged. For those interested in carpooling to the field trip ? or has room to provide a ride ? we will send out a list of names, general location, and contact info closer to the time so that folks wishing transportation to the field trip can arrange something. A number of folks in the Alexandria-Arlington-D.C. area will likely be looking for a ride to the site. *In the event of heavy-steady snow, sleet, pouring rain, or icy, dangerous conditions of roads, the field trip will be cancelled. ( For an illustrated version of this as well as a 1998 article entitled Christmas Botany or How Reindeer Learned to Fly, write to Rod Simmons: Rod.Simmons at alexandriava.gov ) From kathy at fred.net Thu Nov 30 11:20:41 2017 From: kathy at fred.net (Kathy Bilton) Date: Thu, 30 Nov 2017 12:20:41 -0500 (EST) Subject: [BSW] Reminder - Sign up now for next WEDNESDAY's Holiday Potluck Message-ID: The holiday potluck is coming up next WEDNESDAY, December 6. Starting time is 6 pm. Doors will open at 5:30 pm for set up. The sign up sheet is here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1RBixwitzhqsemzOOoUUW2wi4zwI_u8kzOTWmH-MV72Q/edit (When you bring your dish to the potluck, please label it with the ingredients. Labeling material will be provided) The cost is $10 per person and we will provide, drinks (wine, beer, fruit juice & water) and bread. Everyone should try to bring an appetizer, entr?, salad or dessert. We'll be having it in our regular meeting room, WG-33 - the VZ Conference Room. From kathy at fred.net Thu Nov 30 12:49:38 2017 From: kathy at fred.net (Kathy Bilton) Date: Thu, 30 Nov 2017 13:49:38 -0500 (EST) Subject: [BSW] Please let Paul know if you're planning to come to the potluck. Message-ID: If you have not already talked to Paul about coming, please let him know that you are coming (and if you're planning to bring a guest) by next Tuesday so he will know how much beer, wine, etc. to get for the potluck. His email: PETERSON at si.edu No need for pre-payment; bring cash or a check next Wednesday. Sign-up link for what you're bringing: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1RBixwitzhqsemzOOoUUW2wi4zwI_u8kzOTWmH-MV72Q/edit Details about Wednesday's holiday potluck http://botsoc.org/pipermail/bsw_botsoc.org/2017-November/000231.html The December 17 field trip email: http://botsoc.org/pipermail/bsw_botsoc.org/2017-November/000230.html