EcoFlora Virtual Seminar Series


Meetings are held virtually, and are free and open to the public. Each month features a speaker on a topic related to urban biodiversity or that month’s EcoQuest. 

Recordings of previous meetings can be found here and here.

For more information, and to get on our mailing list, send us an email at ecoflora@nybg.org


Previous Lectures

  1. December – Natural Areas Management in Central Park
    Alex Hodges, Assistant Manager of Natural Areas, Central Park Conservancy

  2. January – NYC Lichens: an Urban Experience
    Dr. James Lendemer, Assistant Curator, NYBG

    February – The Sustainability Myth: Environmental Gentrification and the Politics of Justice
    Dr. Melissa Checker, Professor of Urban Studies, Queens College

    March – Bryophytes of New York City
    Zihao Wang, NYC Parks

    April – Japanese Flowering Cherries: A 100 Year-Long Love Affair
    Tony Aiello, Director of Horticulture, Morris Arboretum

    May – The Genus Veronica (Speedwells) – In 15 Million Years to New York
    Dr. Dirk Albach, Professor, Carl vos Ossietzky Universitat, Oldenburg

    June – Ferns of New York City
    Dr. Robbin Moran, Curator Emeritus, NYBG

    July – Wild Lettuce (Lactuca sp.) of New York City
    Lydia Paradiso, PhD Student, NYBG

    August – no meeting

    September – the Nature of Oaks
    Dr. Doug Tallamy, University of Delaware

    October – Domestication, Nutrition, and Ethnobotany of Eggplants and Other Nightshades
    Dr. Rachel Meyer, UC Santa Cruz

    November – Pollution Research on the Bronx River
    Christian Murphy, Bronx River Alliance

    December – Seeing the Forest for the Snow: Connecting the Ecological Impacts of Climate Change Across Seasons
    Dr. Andy Reinmann, CUNY ASRC

  3. January – Winter Botany: Bark, Buds, and Berries
    Nancy Slowik, NYBG Adult Education

    February – Population genetic structure of eastern North American birches
    Dr. Ashley Thomson, Lakehead University

    March – Urban biodiversity: Conservation and restoration in complex social-ecological systems
    Dr. Lea Johnson, Longwood Gardens

    April – Urban Soils of NYC
    Dr. Zhongqi Cheng, Brooklyn College

    May – the State of the Urban Forest in NYC
    Emily Nobel Maxwell and Dr. Mike Treglia, the Nature Conservancy

    June – Wetlands and the City
    Dr. Monica Palta, Pace University

    July – Plant Biodiversity at Liberty State Park
    Dr. Allyson Salisbury

    August – Punching Above their Weight: the role of small green spaces for biodiversity in cities
    Dr. Kevin Vega, ETH Zurich, Switzerland

    September – Ants and the City: influence of urbanization on arthropods using ants as bioindicators
    Dr. Gema Trigos-Peral, Museum and Institute of Zoology, Warsaw, Poland

    SeptemberUrban Warming Shapes Insect Communities on Street Trees
    Dr. Emily Meineke, North Carolina State University

    OctoberThe Value of Vacant Land for Urban Bees
    Dr. Mary Gardiner, the Ohio State University

    NovemberSocio-Ecological Dynamics of Green Roof Ecosystems
    Dr. Jason Aloisio

    NovemberA Two-Way Street: Eco-evolutionary dynamics of Common Milkweed in urban environments
    Sophie Breitbart, University of Toronto

    December – no meeting

  4. JanuaryGathering Plants and Mushrooms in Local Parks and Forests: A practice that supports cultural identity, connection with nature, and stewardship
    Dr. Tatiana Marquina

    JanuaryReading the Landscape: Detecting uses, values, and meanings of parkland through social assessment
    Dr. Lindsay Campbell, Research Social Scientist, USFS NYC Urban Field Station

    FebruaryMapping the Purple Menace: Spatiotemporal distribution of Purple Loosestrife (Lythrum salicaria) along roadsides in northern New York state
    Dr. Jessica Rogers, SUNY Potsdam

    MarchUrban Genetic Pools: Reservoirs of adaptive potential and the seed collectors who are after it
    Heather Liljengren, Supervising Seed Collector, NYC Parks Greenbelt Native Plant Center