TWILIGHT BOTANICAL LECTURE SERIES LAUNCHED
A Twilight Botanical Lecture series sponsored by Old Dominion University and Norfolk Botanical Garden (NBG) will be launched today, with a presentation titled "Perennials for Year-Round Color and Interest" by Steve Urick, the conservator of ODU's soon-to-open Kaplan Orchid Conservatory.
The lecture will be from 6-7 p.m. in the Rose Garden Hall at the botanical garden.
"We are pleased to present these public lectures together with our colleagues at the botanical garden," said Lytton John Musselman, Mary Payne Hogan Professor of Botany and chair of ODU's Department of Biological Sciences. Musselman and Don Buma, director of NBG, have forged a collaborative partnership between the university and the garden in recent years.
The institutions joined efforts in 2006 to create the position of J. Robert Stiffler Distinguished Professor in Botany and Horticulture. Timothy Motley, who was appointed to the professorship, has teaching responsibilities at ODU and research space and a greenhouse at NBG, where he is director of science.
Stiffler is the long-time gardening columnist of The Virginian-Pilot, a collaborator with horticulturists at NBG and the author of "Gardening in Southeastern Virginia and Northeastern North Carolina." The professorship was made possible by a $1 million anonymous gift.
"I try to serve as a bridge in the region between academic research and the aspects of botany that are of more interest to the gardening public," Motley said. "This new lecture series is an outreach to the public."
The series will also include these presentations: "Wetland Habitats," by David Cooper, Colorado State University, Feb. 20 at NBG; "New Discoveries in Archaeology, Anthropology and Natural History from the Mysterious South Pacific Island of Rapa iti" by Timothy Motley, March 18 at ODU's Mills Godwin Jr. Building; "Natural History of Orchids" by Ken Cameron, University of Wisconsin, April 3 at ODU's Mills Godwin Jr. Building in conjunction with the formal opening of the Kaplan Orchid Conservatory; and "Island Madagascar: Parasitic Plants and other Unusual Species" by Jay Bolin, ODU research assistant, May 13 at NBG.
For more information about the lecture series, call 683-3595.