Philipstown Garden Club guest speaker Daniel Atha
New York Botanical Garden botanist Daniel Atha to speak
The Philipstown Garden Club is sponsoring a conservation talk by New York Botanical Garden botanist Daniel Atha at the Desmond-Fish Library on Sunday, Feb. 12 at 2 p.m. Atha’s subject will be Putnam County’s ice ponds.
Atha is collaborating with the Putnam County Land Trust on a botanical inventory of the Ice Pond Conservation Area in the eastern Hudson Highlands. The goal of the project is to provide a scientific assessment of the flora to enhance management, conservation and recreation programs.
The Ice Pond Conservation Area is part of the Great Swamp, one of New York State’s largest wetlands, and contributes to the Croton Reservoir, an important source of drinking water for New York City. Â The 370-acre preserve comprises twenty ecological communities harboring over 600 species of plants, mosses and lichens.
Atha has published numerous books and articles in which he has described species new to science, cataloged plant diversity and investigated cultural plant use and sustainable practice. Â He has taught anatomy and systematics in The New York Botanical Garden’s School of Professional Horticulture and he is an associate editor of the Garden’s systematic botany journal, Brittonia. Â He is currently working with Garden colleagues to develop a DNA barcode of the plants of the Northeastern United States.
The program is free and refreshments will be served.
Photo courtesy of Philipstown Garden Club
