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Botany BC 2012

Andy MacKinnon

 

 

Botany BC is an annual gathering of professional and amateur botanists and plant enthusiasts from B.C. and nearby areas. ('BOTANY' is an acronym for 'Botanical Organization To Accomplish Nothing Yearly', and I can happily report that once again we achieved that goal.)Botany BC 2012 - our 28^th Botany BC - took place July 26-29 at Manning Park.

 

A total of @90 keen participants assembled in Manning Park to enjoy field expeditions, technical presentations, good food and excellent company, and some tomfoolery. Events began on Thursday evening when we gathered at Windy Joe's Hall (Manning Park Resort) for sumptuous snacks and an outstanding presentation on "Wildflowers of Manning Park" by skilled photographer Ron Long. For those who can't get enough of exquisite wildflower photos, Virginia Skilton's stunners of Manning Park Wildflowers were also on display on a table at Windy Joe's.

 

Friday the group divided in two. One group began the day in subalpine meadows near Blackwall Peak, where Andy MacKinnon and Jim & Rosamund Pojar led the meadow meanderings. A highlight was re-locating some of Jim's PhD plots, and Jim pontificating about floral morphology and pollination. The other group began the day at Cascade Lookout with Hans Roemer and Kristen and James Miskelly to tour the Dry Ridge Trail offering a large diversity of drought tolerant species on the sunny side and Vaccinium scoparium-rich coniferous forest on the shady slope with a couple of stops on the way back to Cascade lookout to view some interesting seepages along the road. The highlight on this excursion was to see a large specimen of the rare Tweedy's lewisia (Cistanthe tweedyi). These two groups switched locations for the afternoon, with trip leaders staying put.

Friday evening we had a barbeque dinner in the Resort's Cascade Room, followed by compelling presentations back at Windy Joe's by newlyweds James & Kristen Miskelly ("The Other Side of the Cascades") and Tory Stevens ("Protected Areas in the 21st Century: Galloping with the Climate"). Those with energy remaining gathered around the campfire for singing and convivial chat.

 

On Saturday morning participants were again divided in two groups, one led by Hans Roemer and Ron Long and the other by Kristen and James Miskelly. Two interesting wetland and lakeshore habitats were on the program, the Rein Orchid Trail and Twenty Minute Lake Trail (which with botanists, of course, took much longer than 20 minutes to circumnavigate!). To pick out just one of many attractions, Twenty Minute Lake offered the rare and showy Epilobium x treleasianum, a hybrid between E. luteum and E. ciliatum, with both these parents in close vicinity.

 

Saturday afternoon was left open for participant's to choose their own walks so armed with Manning Park plant lists (available on the Botany BC website) folks set off to explore and enjoy all corners of Manning Park.

 

Saturday evening featured surpassingly good presentations by Gerry Allen ("DNA analyses of widespread alpine plants and what we can learn from them") and Washington's Joe Arnett ("Rare Plants across the Border: Introducing the new Field Guide to the Rare Plants of Washington"). This was followed by our Botany BC AGM, always a bit of a free-for-all with this anarchic crew, where it was decided that Botany BC 2013 will be held in either Revelstoke or Golden. The evening wrapped up with another campfire sing-along, including the annual performance of the "Botany Boogie".

 

And just in case folks hadn't had their fill of botanizing, there were 'on- your-way-home' hikes Sunday morning to Rhododendron Flats (led by Ron Long) and Sumallo Grove (led by Hans Roemer).

 

This was certainly one of the best Botany BC's ever! Thanks to organizers Hans Roemer, Judith Holm, Ryan Batten, Mandy Ross, James and Kristen Miskelly and Elizabeth Easton for their exemplary performance as well as all of the speakers and the special technical help provided by Ron Long and Dawn Hanna. For more information about Botany BC, and for TBA location and dates for Botany BC 2013, see http://members.shaw.ca/botanybc/ .