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The Origins and Evolution of Plants
Wednesday, 21st April 2021, 18:30 - Wednesday, 16th June 2021, 20:00
This is a group of 10 Wednesday evenin
This is a group of 10 Wednesday eveningA series of 10 weekly Wednesday evening talks to help answer the question we all want the answer to!
This is a group of 10 Wednesday evening sessions starting 7th April where Mark Spencer will have answers to the fascinating question ‘Where did the plants in my garden come from and why do they look this way?’
Mark is one of our regular tutors, and is someone that everyone enjoys learning from, his knowledge is extensive and his manner extremely approachable and easy to understand.
Dr Mark Spencer, Forensic botanist and Botany Curator at The Linnean Society
6.30 – 8 pm. Tickets: £10 each
We will email you the link and password once bookings close on the day of the talk, please check your junk mail too.
You can choose to book any or all of these listed below, (no session on Apr 28th):
Week 1 Apr 7th: Deep time, from the ‘primordial swamp’ to towering forests: the spore-bearing plants that once ruled the world.
Week 2 Apr 14th: Time to cover up: how conifers came to clothe the world in green and the origins of seeds.
Week 3 Apr 21st: Darwin’s ‘abominable mystery’: how did flowering plants evolve, is now less mysterious, just!
Week 4 May 5th: Once upon a time, we thought there were just ‘dicots’ and ‘monocots’: the early evolving flowering plants that grace our gardens and enliven our palates.
Week 5 May 12th: How ‘water-friends’ and seagrasses enrich our world and other ‘monocots’ feed the world, put roofs over our heads, motivate the arts and make ice-cream so much nicer.
Week 6 May 19th: Apples and pears, peas and beans and much more besides, especially catkins.
Week 7 May 26th: The lovely mallows and geraniums and their allies.
Week 8 June 2nd: Some like it hot – the fleshy, thorny world of the succulent; as well as some rather odd parasites.
Week 9 June 9th: Mints, bindweed and figworts, a massively confusing ensemble with a proclivity towards parasitism.
Week 10 June 16th: Put your heads together, the ‘crafty’ and hyper-diverse world of daisies, carrots and valerians.