Why Are Blue Berries Red When They Are Green?

ATTENTION: SEE BELOW FOR A NEW LOCATION FOR THE NOV MEETING!!!

Join HAWK to hear Dr. Larry Mellichamp explain how plants manipulate animals to do their bidding!

Have you ever seen a flower banner or a fruit flag? They don’t wave in the breeze, but they do send signals. Native trees and shrubs interact with animals and wind for pollination and seed dispersal. Woody plants produce flowers that are shaped just right for the perfect pollinator, and timed for their interaction. Then later, when the seeds get ripe, animals (birds, squirrels, mammals) are again employed for efficient dispersal – the right nut or berry for the right animal. Plants do several things that help animals to do the right thing. Some of these interesting aspects of plant behavior will be explored. Remember: “the flowers and the trees need the birds and the bees…in fact, they need each other.”

The meeting is free and open to everyone.

NEW LOCATION NOVEMBER MEETING
Because of local elections, we will be meeting at the Matthews Library located at 232 Matthews Station.

Dr. Larry Mellichamp is a Professor of Botany at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte where he taught botany and horticulture courses for over 32 years. He is currently director of the UNCCharlotte Botanical Gardens. He writes and speaks on such topics as pollination biology, bog gardening, native orchids and wildflowers, endangered species, and landscaping with native plants. He is one of the world’s experts on North American native pitcher plants. Dr. Mellichamp has traveled and collected plants in Mexico, Costa Rica, Borneo, Hawaii, South Africa, China, and Australia. He has received several prestigious teaching awards, was the 2003 recipient of the Thomas Roland Medal of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, and the 2009 (first) recipient of the B.W. Wells award for educational efforts from the N.C. native Plant Association. He is co-author of the textbook Practical Botany (1983) and the books The Winter Garden (1997, with Peter Loewer) and Wildflowers of the Western Great Lakes Region (1999).

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