Ferns and friends

This month’s workshop focus

This week’s workshop focussed on identifying ferns, club mosses and horsetails. Gart Bishop made a terrific new slideshow introduction to the group and we put out an array of specimens from the herbarium to make side by side comparisons. Liz Mills and Gart also brought in fresh specimens to examine and compare. We have posted a guide previously (2017 New Brunswick ferns ) as well. In addition, Gart recommends the reference Northeast Ferns: A Field Guide to the Ferns and Fern Relatives of the Northeastern United States Paperback – Aug 26 2013

common-ferns-and-alliesDownload

New Brunswick Plants and their Habitats Course

From Aug 24 to 30 UNB is offering a 4 Credit Hour course on identifying New Brunswick common plant families. Open to everyone, this 7 day course involves classroom sessions, lots of field work and lab time to develop botanical skills you can use anywhere! See go.unb.ca/nbplants page for more details ! From the site:

  • Learn how to identify common plant species in New Brunswick
  • Gain the skills and tools needed to identify other species beyond what the course covers
  • Be taught by experts who collectively have 70+ years of knowledge and hands-on experience in the botanical profession
  • Take daily field trips to seashores, lake shores, bogs, and different hardwood ridges
  • Learn how to make use of botanical resources

Be ready for early flowering shubs!

For March’s Botany Blast, we will be exploring flowering shrubs!

For March’s Botany Blast, we will be exploring flowering shrubs!  The shrubs that bloom in late April and early May go into the winter with their blossoms completely developed. When floral branches of these species are harvesting in February and given warmth and food the buds begin to flush and expand.  Willows, hazelnut, hollies, sweet gale, sweet fern, red berried elder, pin cherry, are a few of the species that have responded to this treatment.

Join us from 11 am to 3 pm next Wednesday, March 20 in Room 27 of Bailey Hall on UNB’s Fredericton campus to catch a breath of spring and figure out how to tell these local beauties apart! amelanchier sp1.jpg

Violet identification

In New Brunswick violets are some of our earliest flowering wildflowers.  We gathered today for a review of some key characters used to identify violets, and thought we would share the resources!

A presentation showing key characteristics for identifying violets

A booklet by NB Botany Club for identifying violets in New Brunswick, including a key  and descriptors NBVioletidentification

Collector’s Stories: James Robb (1815-1861)

Screen Shot 2018-02-28 at 1.00.18 PM.png
James Robb was born in Laurencekirk, Scotland on February 2nd, 1815.  He attended the University of St Andrews and the University of Edinburgh for medicine.  After graduation, he did not regularly practice medicine but came to Fredericton in 1837 for a position as professor of chemistry and natural history at King’s College (now University of New Brunswick).  He taught anatomy, botany, chemistry, geology, mineralogy, physiology, and zoology. He married Ellen Maria Coster, who was the daughter of the president of the college, on December 17th, 1840.During his time at King’s College Robb made many contributions to the museum he created at the college. He made many collecting trips in the province and was the first person in the province to attempt a systematic botanical collection.  Robb was a professor at the college for only 24 years, and died from pneumonia on April 2nd, 1861 at the age of 46.Further information regarding Robb, including a biography from the Dictionary of Canadian Biography, can be found on the UNB Libraries website and within the UNB Libraries as well as on the Provincial Archives of New Brunswick website.

Written Works

Robb wrote a book called “Agricultural Progress: An Outline of the Course of Improvement in Agriculture Considered as a Business, an Art, and a Science, with Special Reference to New Brunswick.” This book discusses land use, agriculture, land tenure and it is 71 pages long. A copy of this book can be found online on the UNB libraries website.

Robb also delivered many orations to the college council during his time as a professor at the college. Copies of these can be found in the James Robb folder, on the UNB Libraries website, and within the UNB Libraries. There is also a letter of correspondence between Robb and Asa Gray located in the James Robb folder.

By Jillian Richard, UNB 2017

*The Herbarium holds approximately 450 specimens  collected by J. Robb.