Welcome plant lovers! Join us for Documenting Invasive Plants with Herbaria: A Tutorial with Dr. Andrea Weeks on August 22nd at 12 pm. Dr. Weeks will guide us through the fascinating process of how to create herbaria. Don't miss this opportunity to learn from a renowned expert in the field! Save the date and let's explore together.
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Documenting invasives with herbaria:
Herbaria (also referred to as herbariums) play an important role in the field of environmental science. Often, they are used for research purposes that utilize data such as when and where specimens were collected. With regards to invasive plants, herbarium samples can help researchers determine when certain species started entering other ecosystems and what might have been the cause for their initial spread. Digitizing and cataloguing these specimens allow people to more easily use these records for scientific research.
Dr. Weeks is engaged in making this valuable information about the Virginia flora available to the public via the Internet. This evolving collection will now also include invasive plants. Samples are needed! Dr. Weeks will teach the audience what to look for, how to collect the specimens, how to document them, and how to submit them utilizing the herbarium method. If you are interested in contributing plant samples to this important project, we hope you will join us for this webinar.
This is a free online webinar. Those who register will receive a copy of the recording.
Note: Formal documentation of the presence of specific species is imperative to building awareness of their pervasiveness and impact across the Commonwealth. To be recognized by the Department of Conservation and Recreation Natural Heritage Program, all plants must be documented with one of the Commonwealth’s herbaria. In this workshop, Associate Professor of Botany and Flora of Virginia board member Dr. Andrea Weeks will demonstrate how to collect and submit plant samples for documentation.
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Dr. Andrea Weeks is a professor of botany at George Mason University and director of its Ted Bradley Herbarium. She teaches undergraduate courses in plant biology and conducts research in angiosperm systematics. Since 2014 she has led a National Science Foundation–funded initiative to digitize Virginia herbaria. She is a past president of the Society of Herbarium Curators and a member of the Virginia Botanical Associates.
