Spring is the time to look at and enjoy flowers. Join Dr. Nagalingum from the California Academy of Sciences for a closer look at flowers. Different pollinators benefit from variations in flower parts and we’ll discover how and why. We will even discover how flowers in the Victorian age were used in the language of sending discrete messages in the eternal quest for love.
Join us for this most illuminating program on form and structure of flowers.

The webinar will take place on Saturday, February 27th at 4 pm. Reservations are
required, so please RSVP to the Friends of SPVP email: [email protected]

• If you are interested in participating, please respond by noon on Friday
  February 26th.
• On the day of the lecture, an invitation to join the webinar will be sent about 30 minutes prior to the talk so that everyone can be ready by 4 pm.
• The lecture – with Q&A – will last one hour.
• Questions can be submitted in writing using Zoom.
• The Q&A session will take place at the end of the lecture.

About the lecture: It’s spring, flowers are blooming and Dr. Nathalie Nagalingum                        will help us take a closer look, a much closer look, at the different forms and structures of flowers that you will find in your garden neighborhood, and park. She will discuss how pollinators such as birds,
insects, and bats have co-evolved with flowers over the millennia, how they fit and work together, and the benefits that both derive. She will also take a step back into history and discuss how certain plants were selected for medicinal purposes, something that may well surprise you.

As for the Victorians, they created a language using flowers as a means of communicating the most intimate of feelings. Come join Dr. Natalie Nagalingum to learn the botany of flowers, enhance your powers of observation, and appreciate the incredible variation you did not even know existed.

About the speaker: Dr. Nagalingum investigates the evolution and
diversification of plants, including ferns and with a special focus on cycads. Cycads are cone-bearing, palm-like plants comprise the most endangered group of organisms on Earth. Nagalingum’s research delves into the genetic diversity of cycads to guide conservation priorities, ensuring that the species most under threat in the wild are prioritized in the world’s botanic gardens and in their natural habitats. She serves as Associate Curator and McAllister Chair of Botany at the California Academy of Sciences, where she oversees the institution’s botany collection and regularly shares her research with the public.

Nagalingum formerly worked at the Royal Botanic Garden in Sydney and received her PhD in paleobotany from the University of Melbourne. Her field research brings her across the globe, from the outback of Australia to the rainforests of Malaysia.