Forester-Artist Bruce Lyndon Cunningham and professor, Dr. Elray S. Nixon, have published the third edition of Trees, Shrubs & Woody Vines of East Texas. The revised edition of this field manual contains keys and illustrations to over 300 woody plant species and an illustrated glossary of plant structures containing over 200 terms. To order your [...]
Archive for the ‘Reference’ Category
Trees, Shrubs & Woody Vines of East Texas
Posted in botanical art, botanical illustration, Reference, Special Announcements, tagged Plants, shrubs, Texas, trees, vines on May 21, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
National Gallery of Art Launches Online Resource for Teachers
Posted in botanical art, Education, Reference, tagged images, National Gallery of Art, teachers, washington on April 23, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
The National Gallery of Art on the National Mall in Washington, DC announced a new online resource for teachers last week. This resource makes available more than 20,000 images teachers can search, share and download for the classroom. Available through the Gallery are open access images the Gallery believes to be in the public domain. [...]
The History of Botany in the US
Posted in botanical art, botanical illustration, Education, general botany, Learning Opportunities, Reference, tagged botany, science education, teaching & learning, US history on February 24, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
Why are botany labs organized the way they are? When was the first botany class taught? Is “plant blindness” a recent infliction or is there evidence of it happening long before our time? When was field work incorporated into botany instruction? You mean field work had to be deliberately integrated into botany class and wasn’t [...]
Nature Stewardship Through Art & Science with John Muir Laws
Posted in botanical art, botanical illustration, Education, Learning Opportunities, natural science illustration, Reference, Sketching & Journaling, Special Announcements, Special Events, tagged arts education, drawing, John Muir Laws, nature, painting, postaweek2011, sierra nevada, steward on December 1, 2011 | 25 Comments »
A steward of the environment, especially California’s Sierra Nevada, John Muir Laws, has dedicated himself to revealing the natural world through art and science. John (Jack) Laws has been an environmental educator for 30 years. He recently collaborated with the California Native Plant Society and with English instructor, Emily Breunig, to create a wonderful curriculum [...]
Swiss Program Succeeds at Making Students More Aware of Local Plants & Animals
Posted in botanical illustration, Education, Reference, Sketching & Journaling, tagged biodiversity, environmental education, postaweek2011, Switzerland, teaching & learning on September 16, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
Animals are fun. They engage us with their movements, have big round eyes, have cuddly fur and come in intriguing shapes, sizes and colors. Plants, however, just sit there. These truths, plus other interesting facts about how people perceive organisms are discussed by Petra Lindemann-Matthies in “Loveable” Mammals and “Lifeless” Plants: How Children’s Interest in [...]
User-friendly Identification Tools for Plants & Animals
Posted in Education, general botany, Reference, tagged animals, dichotomous keys, field guides, Plants, taxonomy, teaching & learning on August 12, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
Do you have a favorite field guide? Do you use the electronic guides available on the Web? In Electronic Field Guides and User Communities in the Ecoinformatics Revolution, researchers R.D. Stevenson, William A. Haber and Robert A. Morris review the role of field guides and electronic field guides. They also discuss the history of field [...]
Connect with the Ocean in Natural Quiet
Posted in Education, Reference, Special Articles & Interviews, Special Events, tagged National Park Service, natural quiet, outdoors, postaweek2011, sound on April 12, 2011 | 2 Comments »
Today we are very fortunate to learn from sound recordist and engineer, Dan Dugan. Dan is a member of the Nature Sounds Society and serves on their Board of Directors. The Nature Sounds Society is based in northern California. Dan and other Society members travel to natural areas to record nature’s sounds. Please welcome Dan [...]
The Language of Flowers at The Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation
Posted in botanical art, botanical art books, Education, Reference, Special Announcements, Special Events, tagged botanical art, flowers, Pittsburgh, postaweek2011 on February 9, 2011 | 2 Comments »
Courtesy of The Hunt Institute FLORA’S LEXICON 25 March–30 June 2011 Flora’s Lexicon explores the 19th-century European and American phenomenon of The Language of Flowers, the common understanding that plants and blooms were charged with sentiment and meaning and held the potential to express emotion or to communicate privileged messages within the strict confines of [...]
Eradicating Plant Blindness in the 21st Century
Posted in Education, general botany, Reference, tagged botany, education, postaweek2011, teaching & learning on January 28, 2011 | 1 Comment »
Last year we took a look at plant blindness — a phrase used to describe the observation that people are largely unaware of the plants in their surroundings. Botanical illiteracy is more than a topic botanists discuss over dinner. It is a subject with broad-reaching consequences. Dr. Gordon E. Uno of the University of Oklahoma [...]
Sierra Club Trails Added to “Nature Near You”
Posted in Education, natural science illustration, Reference, sketchbook, tagged hiking, nature, Sierra Club, trails on November 8, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
Looking for new trails to explore? Try the Sierra Club’s directory of trails for hiking, cycling, walking, and many other outdoor activities. Trails can be searched by keyword, city, state, and zip code. Trails are sorted according to activity level (easy, moderate, strenuous), features (hiking, canoeing, etc.), and river class for those who enjoy whitewater [...]





