June 23rd: Lecture and Book Signing with Native Plants Curator Dan Johnson

Meet the Natives Lecture and Book Signing with Denver Botanic Gardens Native Plants Curator Dan Johnson
Thursday, June 23, 7 – 8:30 p.m., Gates Hall – Buy tickets
6-7 p.m. – Tour of the Kathryn Kalmbach Herbarium

View native plants of the southern Rocky Mountains through Dan Johnson’s creative curatorial eye – both in wild habitats and in garden settings. Johnson’s much-anticipated 2011 expansion of M. Walter Pesman’s 1942 Meet the Natives boasts not only additional plants, but also color photos that make identification of plants and wildflowers in Colorado’s scenic trails and byways easier than ever.

Johnson also addresses commonly encountered plants that actually are not native to the region and the problems they cause. Threatened and invasive species are duly noted as well. In this talk Dan presents commentary regarding which natives are well-suited for garden spaces, and which should be left to wild habitats.
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Nymphaea capensis in bloom in research greenhouse

Sporting a lovely blue flower in the research greenhouse last week was the exotic species tropical waterlily, Nymphaea capensis. The plant was grown from seed and presented to the Gardens by Curator of Native Plants, Dan Johnson. Dan and C. McMaster collected the seed in the wild (Feb. 2006) in South Africa, locality of Swellendam, from waterlilies flowering in a large pond at the base of Swartberg Pass. We will be monitoring this special waterlily and anticipate displaying N. capensis in the outside pools in 2009.