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Joint Field Meeting of the Botanical Society of America, Torrey Botanical Society, and the Philadelphia Botanical Club: New Jersey Pine Barrens, June 12-16, 2026

June 12 through June 16, 2026

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philadelphiabotanicalclub

The Philadelphia Botanical Club is dedicated to increasing knowledge and appreciation of the botany of the Philadelphia region & beyond.

Please join us—in person or on Zoom—on Thursday, A

Please join us—in person or on Zoom—on Thursday, April 23 at 6:15 p.m. to hear from Cathryn Pugh, Penn State Extension Forestry Educator, on “American Ginseng: A Valuable and Vulnerable Forest Plant.”

Since the 1700s, American ginseng (Panax quinquefolius) has been harvested from the wild and exported to Asia, where it is prized as a near-miraculous panacea. A dried pound of mature wild root fetches $500–$1,200; its global market value in 2025 is estimated at nearly $1 billion. The Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources classifies the species as vulnerable. Collection on state land is prohibited, but on private land it is legal to harvest, cultivate, and export provided state and federal regulations are followed. In her talk, Cathryn Pugh will offer insight into the stewardship and sustainable use of this remarkable native plant.

Cathryn holds an M.S. in Forest Resources from Penn State and a B.S. in Organismal Biology and Ecology from Kutztown University. She is coauthor of a research paper on growing ginseng in Pennsylvania. Through workshops, plant walks, and forest-farming programs, she helps landowners and communities understand the ecological and economic value of Pennsylvania’s forests. Her work focuses on agroforestry, non-timber forest products, forest ecology, and native plants. This year the Association of Natural Resource Extension Professionals honored her with its Gold Level Award for Innovative Natural Resources Programming.

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We will meet at the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, 100 North 20th St., Philadelphia (the northwest corner of Arch and 20th Streets). Our meeting is in the PHS McLean Library on the ground floor, which is wheelchair accessible.

6:00 p.m. Doors of the library open
6:15 p.m. The meeting starts.
6:30 p.m. Presentation begins
7:30 p.m. The meeting ends, and the McLean Library closes.

7:30 p.m. For those who would like to join us and our speaker for dinner, we will dine at Thanal Indian Tavern (1939 Arch St.) at the corner of 20th and Arch Streets, directly across the street from our meeting.

Our meetings are free and open to the public. All are welcome to join us for dinner afterwards.

Please join us on Zoom for the Philadelphia Botani

Please join us on Zoom for the Philadelphia Botanical Club’s meeting on Thursday, March 26th. We are pleased to welcome our guest speaker, Ryan J. Schmidt-Knapik, National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow at the Harvard University Herbaria. He will speak on “The hidden heroes of herbaria: the collector practices that enable large-scale floristic research in the Northeast."

Herbaria are treasure troves of information about plants collected over time—even centuries. But the patterns we see in these collections are shaped not only by nature but also by the habits and interests of the collectors. Drawing on 237 herbaria and more than one million digitized specimens collected in the northeastern United States, this talk will explore how individual collectors—both prolific and more casual—have influenced what we know about plant diversity through time.

This meeting will be Zoom only. The Zoom link will be emailed to members the day before the meeting.

Non-members who wish to attend should contact us at philbotclub at gmail.com during the week prior to the meeting.

Meetings are free and open to the public.

Tomorrow! Join us on Zoom on Thursday, February 26

Tomorrow! Join us on Zoom on Thursday, February 26 at 6:15 p.m. We are pleased to welcome our guest speaker, Aiden M. Stanley, post-doctoral researcher at Rutgers University. He will present his research on how urbanization alters flowering phenology and mating systems in orange jewelweed (Impatiens capensis).

This meeting will be Zoom only. The Zoom link will be emailed to members the day before the meeting.

Non-PBC members who wish to attend should contact us at philbotclub at gmail.com by Wednesday.

�Meetings are free and open to the public.

Please join us on Zoom on Thursday, February 26 at

Please join us on Zoom on Thursday, February 26 at 6:15 p.m. We are pleased to welcome our guest speaker, Aiden M. Stanley, post-doctoral researcher at Rutgers University. He will present his research on how urbanization alters flowering phenology and mating systems in orange jewelweed (Impatiens capensis).

Urban environments profoundly reshape plant life histories. Drawing on field studies and common-garden experiments, Dr. Stanley’s research showed that urban populations flower earlier and differ in reproductive strategy.

This meeting will be Zoom only. We will not meet in person.

The Zoom link will be emailed to members the day before the meeting. (Time to renew your membership for 2026? Join via the club website!)

Non-PBC members who wish to attend should contact us at philbotclub@gmail.com during the week prior to the meeting.

�Meetings are free and open to the public.

The January meeting of the Philadelphia Botanical

The January meeting of the Philadelphia Botanical Club is this week!

Please join us—in person or on Zoom—on Thursday, January 22 at 6:15 p.m. Our guest speaker is Mandy Katz, Lead Gardener and Director of Horticulture of Bartram’s Garden. The title of her talk is "Past, Present, and Future of Aquatic Plants at Bartram's Garden."

We will meet at the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, 100 North 20th St, Philadelphia. Our meeting is in the PHS McLean Library on the ground floor, which is wheelchair accessible.

6:00 p.m. Doors of the library open
6:15 p.m. The meeting begins.
6:30 p.m. The invited presentation begins.
7:30 p.m. The meeting ends, and the McLean Library closes.

7:30 p.m. For those who would like to join us and our speaker for our after-meeting dinner, we will dine at Thanal Indian Tavern at the corner of 20th and Arch Streets, directly across the street from our meeting.

On the day before the meeting, we will email the Zoom link. Non-members who wish to log in to the meeting should contact us at philbotclub at gmail.com during the week before the meeting.

Our meetings are free and open to the public.

Please join us for the January meeting of the Phil

Please join us for the January meeting of the Philadelphia Botanical Club! On Thursday, January 22 at 6:15 p.m. Mandy Katz, Lead Gardener and Director of Horticulture of Bartram's Garden, will speak on the "Past, Present, and Future of Aquatic Plants at Bartram's Garden."

Aquatic plants have always been a compelling part of Bartram’s Garden’s scientific story, starting from John Bartram’s 18th-century experiments to today’s ecological restoration work. In her talk, Mandy will describe how the Bartrams collected and propagated water plants. She has continued that tradition by studying and cultivating some of the same species. She will report how aquatic gardening is emerging as a potential tool at Bartram’s Garden for strengthening social networks.

The club meets at the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, 100 North 20th St, Philadelphia, in the PHS McLean Library on the ground floor, which is wheelchair accessible.

6:00 p.m. Doors of the library open
6:15 p.m. The meeting begins.
6:30 p.m. The invited presentation begins.
7:30 p.m. The meeting ends, and the McLean Library closes.

7:30 p.m. For those who would like to join us and our speaker for our after-meeting dinner, we will dine at Thanal Indian Tavern (1939 Arch St.) at the corner of 20th and Arch Streets, directly across the street from our meeting.

On the day before the meeting, we will email the Zoom link. Non-members who wish to log in to the meeting should contact us at philbotclub@gmail.com during the week before the meeting. Our meetings are free and open to the public.

It's our last club meeting of the year! Please joi

It's our last club meeting of the year! Please join us—in person or on Zoom—on Thursday, December 18th at 6:15 p.m. Our guest speaker is Aiesha Parmar of the Appalachian Mountain Club. The title of their talk is “Following the Flowers: Tracking Appalachian Plant Phenology with iNaturalist.”

The Appalachian Trail is a conservation corridor 2,190-miles in length. It passes within 75 miles of Philadelphia. Researchers looking at the impact of climate change on phenology have observed that the spring leaf-out and flowering of plants in the Trail’s mid-Atlantic section were more sensitive to temperature increases compared to its southern and northern sections, and that understory plants were more sensitive to temperature increases than canopy trees. An ongoing iNaturalist Project of the Appalachian Mountain Club made key contributions to these astonishing discoveries. In her presentation, Aiesha Parmar will describe this research and how we can contribute to it.

Club meetings are free and open to the public! We meet at the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, 100 North 20th St, Philadelphia. Our meeting is in the PHS McLean Library on the ground floor, which is wheelchair accessible.

6:00 p.m. Doors of the library open
6:15 p.m. The meeting begins.
6:30 p.m. The invited presentation begins.
7:30 p.m. The meeting ends, and the McLean Library closes.

7:30 p.m. For those who would like to join us and our speaker for our after-meeting dinner, we will dine at Thanal Indian Tavern (1939 Arch St.) at the corner of 20th and Arch Streets, directly across the street from our meeting.

A Zoom link will be emailed to all Philadelphia Botanical Club members on the day of the meeting, for those who wish to join in virtually.

Nearly all bananas in international trade come fro

Nearly all bananas in international trade come from a single cultivar group. The cultivars are sterile, triploid clones that produce fruit without seeds or pollination. The plants are propagated vegetatively. Today, Fusarium wilt poses a global threat to this important crop. Professor Scott Poethig will explore the fascinating history of banana cultivation and the serious challenges now confronting it.
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The November 20th meeting will be at the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, 100 North 20th St, Philadelphia (the northwest corner of Arch and 20th Streets). Our meeting is in the PHS McLean Library on the ground floor, which is wheelchair accessible.

6:00 p.m. Doors of the library open
6:15 p.m. The meeting begins.
6:30 p.m. The invited presentation begins.
7:30 p.m. The meeting ends, and the McLean Library closes.
7:30 p.m. For those who would like to join us and our speaker for our after-meeting dinner, we will dine at Thanal Indian Tavern (1939 Arch St.) at the corner of 20th and Arch Streets, directly across the street from our meeting.
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As always, meetings are open to everyone and free to attend!
Club members who wish to join virtually will receive an emailed Zoom link the day of the meeting.

Do you have a Philly flora project that could use

Do you have a Philly flora project that could use funding?

The annual Philadelphia Botanical Club Grant for Botanical Research, Education, and Conservation supports Club members who are conducting research, developing educational programs and/or working on conservation efforts that involve plants in the greater Philadelphia region.

Details about eligibility and instructions for application are available on the Club website, linked in our bio. The grant amount is generally $2000 per award and the Club generally awards two member grants each year.

Apply by December 2!

Please join us on Zoom or in person on Thursday, O

Please join us on Zoom or in person on Thursday, October 23rd at 6:15 p.m. Dr. Tammo Reichgelt, Associate Professor in residence in the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Connecticut, will speak on “Rock dwellers in urban heat islands––adapting to a harsh novel biome.”

Studies of tolerance of urban environmental conditions focus mainly on trees, since trees offer the most microclimatic benefits in urban settings. However, vegetation on vertical surfaces in urban environments also may mitigate urban heat islands. This talk will explore what predisposes certain plant species such as ferns to thrive in spaces with dense human-made infrastructure.

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Meetings are free and open to everyone!
We will meet at the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, 100 North 20th St, Philadelphia. Our meeting is in the PHS McLean Library on the ground floor, which is wheelchair accessible.

6:00 p.m. Doors of the library open
6:15 p.m. The meeting begins.
6:30 p.m. The invited presentation begins.
7:30 p.m. The meeting ends, and the McLean Library closes.

7:30 p.m. For those who would like to join us and our speaker for our after-meeting dinner, we will dine at Thanal Indian Tavern.

A Zoom link will be emailed to all members who prefer to attend virtually.

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