Plants Go to War
Presentation and book signing 

 

Join us for a special presentation and book signing with author Judith Sumner. Drawing from her book, Plants Go to War, Sumner will examine the plants that provided wartime food, pharmaceutical drugs, timber, rubber, canvas, and other essential goods and survival techniques that helped to win the war. Join us for a fascinating story of the convergence of history and horticulture! Join us for a reception at 6 p.m. copies of Plants Go to War will be available for purchasing and signing. Presentation to begin at 7

Judith Sumner is a botanist who specializes in ethnobotany, flowering plants, plant adaptations, and garden history. She has taught extensively both at the college level and at botanical gardens, including the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University and Garden in the Woods. Judith graduated from Vassar College and completed graduate studies in botany at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.  She studied at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and at the British Museum (Natural History) and did extensive field work in the Pacific region on the genus Pittosporum.  

Judith has published monographic studies in the American Journal of Botany, Pollen et Spores, and Allertonia, as well as monographing two families for Flora Vitiensis Nova.  Her other projects and areas of interest have included field studies in the Great Smoky Mountains, work with AID/Santo Domingo on developing petroleum-rich plants, and a commitment to science education. Judith served as a visiting scientist for several summers in the LEAP (Learning About Plants) program at Harvard for Boston school teachers and has served as a National Public Radio Science Mentor. She has spent summers working with teachers the Museum Institutes for Teaching Science (MITS) program and conducting workshops on science writing. 

Judith has been a guest on the Martha Stewart Living television show, the PBS program "Cultivating Life" with Sean Conway, the Annenberg Channel, and various other PBS and educational programs. She recently presented a First Friday lecture at the Boston Museum of Science and was a featured lecturer at the Herb Society (USA) annual meeting. Her recent Arnold Arboretum lecture on victory gardens is available for viewing online at the WGBH Forum website. Her column “The Gardener’s Kitchen” (under the pseudonym Laura Craig) appeared in Horticulture magazine for several years. She also contributes online to the blog and Herbarium website of the Herbal Academy of New England.

Learn more about Judith at www.JudithSumner.com

 

 

 

$30/member
$45/general admission

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