Vernon Smith 2023 Floral Highlights
March 11, 2024 – Zoom presentation – 7:30pm
“2023 Floral Highlights from California and Beyond – Images by CNPS Members”
Guest Speakers: Betsey Crawford, Madeline Kellner, Doreen & Vernon Smith, Dana Swisher, and Suzanne Weakley
Our presenters will share their best recent photos – Betsey, Suzanne, and Vernon have images of native species from Marin and other locations in California. Dana will show us her shots from observing Monarch butterflies in Mexico. Madeline will share floral delights from much of the Americas: California and her travels in Guatemala, Ecuador, Peru and Costa Rica.
As a landscape designer and environmental activist, Betsey Crawford devoted her efforts to planting native plants and restoring ecosystems. Now retired and living in a town named with a wildflower, she shares her passion for nature with photos and essays about wildflowers, ecology, botany, spirit, and all things nature on her website, The Soul of the Earth: https://thesouloftheearth.com.
Madeline Kellner: Native plant enthusiast, community developer, avid traveler
Doreen and Vernon Smith are long-time members of the Marin Chapter of the CNPS. Doreen served for many years as Rare Plant Chair for the Chapter and gained an encyclopedic knowledge of where the native plants grow, and when they flower. Her botanical expertise helped Vernon find and photograph most of Marin’s native species.
Dana Swisher is a teacher and the garden director at Neil Cummins Elementary School. She is also the founder and director of Refugia Marin, a nonprofit devoted to fostering environmental stewardship. Dana just returned from a trip with Wendy Caldwell, executive director of Monarch Joint Venture that is working to preserve the eastern monarch migratory population.
Suzanne Weakley is a San Francisco native who grew up on a ranch in Sonoma County, where she learned to love California wildflowers at an early age. Currently, she is one of the volunteer photo editors for Calflora.
Zoom Registration Link
Rhododendron columbianum – Labrador tea
Photo by Suzanne Weakley
Limnanthes douglasii ssp. sulphurea – Point Reyes meadow-foam Photo by Vernon Smith
Styrax redivivus -Snowdrop
Photo By Betsey Crawford
Monardella odoratissima – coyote mint
with Gnophaela latipennis butterfly
Photo by Betsey Crawford
Calochortus venustus butterfly mariposa lily Photo by Suzanne Weakley
Epidendrum sp
Guatemala
Photo by Madeline Kellner
Aristolochia sp
from Guatemala
Photo by Madeline Kellner
Orchid sp
from Guatemala
Madeline Kellner
Monarchs on fir in Mexico
Photo by Dana Swisher
Monarch Butterflies in Mexico
Photo by Dana Swisher
