Fall Botany 2025 (In-person)
Fall (4-8 hours) | Registration opens 7/29/2025 12:00 AM EDT
Fall is a great time to discover plants. Trees and shrubs show their true colors. Late wildflowers are at their peak. Nuts and berries abound. Grasses spread their seeds. Ferns are offering much more than fronds. We will begin by identifying the late-season characteristics of familiar trees, shrubs, and “weeds” using the growing season’s fruits, leaves, and remnants. We’ll also look out for fall wildflowers, especially goldenrods and asters. Each class will be a field trip close to Hanover. We will explore local natural areas from the end of August to early October, meeting every other week for leisurely walks through fields, forests, and wetlands. This course will involve field trips and exploring nature.
Optional Books:
Newcomb’s Wildflower Guide - Lawrence Newcomb (ISBN-13: 978-0316604420)
Peterson Field Guide to Ferns: Northeastern and Central North America, 2nd Edition - Boughton Cobb, Cheryl Lowe, Elizabeth Farnsworth (ISBN-13: 978-0618394067)
Wildflowers of New England - Ted Elliman & New England Wild Flower Society (ISBN-13: 978-1604694642)
Grasses, Sedges, Rushes, An Identification Guide - Lauren Brown & Ted Elliman (ISBN-13: 978-0300236774)
Alice Schori
Alice Schori, a graduate of Oberlin College, is a field botanist who studied native plants through the New England Wild Flower Society starting in the mid-1990s. She has performed botanical surveys for conservation organizations and local towns, and spent nine summers doing similar work for the White Mountain National Forest.
Lynnwood Andrews
Lynnwood Andrews is a retired clinical child psychologist who has taken botany and plant identification classes through Osher, and at the Native Plant Trust. She has volunteered for several environmental and conservation groups focused on plants.