Botany by Family: The Key to See, with Marc Williams

Did you know that April is national Native Plant Month, celebrating the fabulous beauty and diversity of our native flowers? If you’re new to the area or just interested in learning more about your woodland neighbors, try out Marc Williams’ upcoming class at Asheville Botanical Garden, March 29, 1 to 4:30 p.m., to learn more about the plants around us. Nearly 350,000 species of flowering plants are known to global science, and these species have been grouped into over 400 flowering plant families. Learning to recognize plant family patterns helps to demystify the “green wall” of plant species around us. In this class, Marc Williams will focus our attention on the top 30 plant families growing around us, teaching us to recognize plants everywhere we go. After an indoor presentation on the major plant families common to the Southeastern U.S., Marc will reinforce our plant identification skills with a walk in the Garden to observe family patterns in leaf, flower, and fruit types. We’ll also discuss edibility, medicinality, craft, wildlife support, and landscape beauty as you gain a more holistic understanding of the major plants comprising Southern U.S. flora and their potential ecological and ethnobotanical applications. Preregistration is required. Visit https://ashevillebotanicalgardens.square.site/classes to register.