November 1 through 30, 2025
At the Garden & Online
Join NYBG to celebrate Native American Heritage Month. On-site programming in and around the Thain Family Forest as well as digital offerings highlight the plant-based traditions of Native Americans from the Northeast and throughout the Americas.
November 1 & 2; 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Thain Family Forest
The Thain Family Forest—New York City’s largest remaining tract of old-growth woodland—is your fall foliage headquarters. This weekend offers activities, hands-on crafts, tours, and demonstrations by members of NYBG’s science and education teams as well as visiting experts.
The New York Botanical Garden is located on land that is part of Lenapehoking, the traditional territory and homeland of the Lenape people. The Lenape use hundreds of plants for food, medicine, tools, building materials, and other purposes. Discover more about Lenape Plantways on The Hand Lens.
NYBG scientists have launched two initiatives to support the preservation of biological diversity and cultural knowledge with the Shinnecock Cultural Resources and Environmental Departments, University of Waterloo.
The Shinnecock Ethnobotany Project documents local botanical diversity and traditional knowledge about its use and management, and the Shinnecock Indicators of Climate Change Impacts studies ecological processes related to climate change along with community perceptions and adaptations to them.
Usnea, a genus of lichen known as old man’s beard, is used in traditional herbal medicine in many cultures worldwide—from ancient Greece to China to Native American groups—to treat respiratory and other conditions. It is known to grow on the north sides of trees, earning it the name chan wiziye (“on the north side of the tree” or “spirit of the north wind”) in the Dakota language.
Location At the Garden & Online
Location At the Garden & Online