Marietta Natural History Society April Meeting Speaker

This year is already promising to be a busy one for this blogger!  Between leading field trips, speaking gigs, and attending a handful of conferences, I am one tied up fellow.  I love being invited to participate and be a contributing member to the number of fine organizations and events I'm fortunate enough to be affiliated with. For a full list of my public speaking and leadership appearances so far this year one doesn't need to look further than the left column of my blog just a very short scroll down the page.

Ohio's native orchid species collage 

First up on the docket for 2013 is this month's meeting for the Marietta Natural History Society.  Dave McShaffrey, professor of Biology and Environmental Science at Marietta College was kind enough to ask me to give a presentation for their monthly gathering.  The topic will come as little to no surprise for those of you who read this blog with any kind of consistency: Ohio's native orchids!  Orchids have always been my deepest passion in the botanical world not only for their physical beauty but their fascinating life histories, habitat niches, and deep diversity.  I'm very fortunate to have come across 44 of Ohio's 47-49 taxa (depending on if you count hybrids/varieties in the count) in my travels and excursions and I hope to bring those species and their findings to life.

So for any interested parties living in southeastern Ohio and/or in/near Marietta, I invite you to attend the monthly meeting at Marietta College's Selby Hall room 150 at 7:00pm on Thursday, April 11th!  It's free and open to the public and I'd love to see you there!  Hopefully you'll see some orchids you've never seen or knew existed along with some interesting facts.