New England Botanical Club celebrates 120 Years

 

The New England Botanical Club celebrated it's 120th anniversary with a conference at Smith College in Northampton, MA from June 5th - 7th.

Researchers and botanists from as far away as Ontario came to discuss current environmental research and the future of botanic organizations.  Keynote speaker Pamela Diggle discussed the history of botanic organizations across the world and probed for answers as to why, in this technological age, we continue meeting for conferences.

"We can talk to each other over Skype, we can Tweet, we can read each other's papers - there's lots of ways we can interact with each other about plants.  Anything you want to know is on Youtube.  You can usually find what you're looking for, but you don't find what you're not looking for...You come to a meeting like this and you learn a lot about what you're interested in but you also learn really unexpected things," Diggle said

On Sunday, attendees split up to hike trails around Western Massachusetts and kept their eyes peeled for rare species.  The conference brought together different generations and people from all walks of life to broaden their botanical knowledge and share their common passion for plants.