[BSW] Field trip tomorrow 4/8 + Details for May 2 Meeting + Misc.

[KATHY BILTON]

The second Bear Island field trip is coming up this Saturday, April 8 at 8 
a.m.  Two weeks later there will be a field trip to Ferry Hill, a couple 
of miles from Sharpsburg and across the river from Shepherdstown.   Field 
trip details are here: http://botsoc.org/bswfieldtrips.html

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The speaker for our May 2 meeting will be:

Dr. Marcela Sandoval Velasco, a Postdoctoral Researcher at the
National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution
https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=m3KX928AAAAJ&hl=es

Her title is :  An integrative palaeogenomic approach to study the 
domestication history of Agaves”

Summary:
Agaves are widely known for the popular spirits produced from them, 
Tequila and Mezcal, and less known for being one culturally-important 
historical cultivar with a long history of interaction and use by humans 
in the Americas. Archaeological evidence discovered in many sites across 
Mesoamerica and the American Southwest  show that agaves have been used as 
a source of food, beverage, fibre, clothing, weaponry, tool, and 
construction material for thousands of years. This has led to the 
suggestion that agaves may be one of the earliest cultivated and 
domesticated plants from Mesoamerica. Using the extensive archaeological 
record of agaves and applying novel palaeogenomic methods, I am 
investigating the complex evolutionary history of the processes driving 
cultivation and domestication directly through time to understand how the 
human-agave relationship was shaped and established, how humans impacted 
the distribution and reproduction of agaves through traditional management 
and how this influenced and modified the landscape.

Zoom link: 
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86378636908?pwd=YXIveGFyMzQyV2E0M0ZZSmtJL095Zz09
Meeting ID: 863 7863 6908   Passcode: 763443

Flier for the meeting: http://botsoc.org/may23.pdf

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I’m No Genius with Genuses, but Your Garden is Killing the Earth
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/04/07/suburban-lawn-climate-change-biodiversity/

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Women’s History Month: Local Teacher Was a Botany Expert (Michigan)
https://www.thedailynews.cc/articles/womens-history-month-local-teacher-was-a-botany-expert/