HOT TOPIC: Flower Day
Volume 3, Issue 34 - May 13, 2007"May 20th is Flower Day. A week after Mother’s Day, one of the great sales days for florists in the entire calendar year, Flower Day allows teachers and students to take a closer look at flowering plants as part of a larger study of botany.
The flower is the most noticeable part of the plant. Their appeal has encouraged humankind to study and possess them, leading to the popular pastime of gardening. Their beauty and fragrance exist to attract insects, birds or bats that all play an important role in the reproductive process of pollinating.
Once one starts noticing colors, patterns and relationships among blossoms, we open ourselves up to a wide variety of topics from flower meanings and folklore to medicinal purposes, knowing flowers by biome and region, and appreciating rare wildflowers that need to be protected,
A study of flowers is a great introduction to the natural, empirical world. if you want to experiment with wild edible herbs, or wild medicinal herbs, or wild plants from which dyes, glues, insecticides, perfumes can be derived, or if you want to identify all the trees, bushes, vines, wildflowers, grasses and weeds that grow in your neighborhood, you have to be able to identify your plant by its blossoms.
This study of plants goes back to old testament times, with records found from ancient Greece and Rome. It wasn’t until the conclusion of the dark ages that Albert the Great began modern botany. From that time on the attempt to find a natural classification system for the great variety of plant species led to important contributions to botany. Cell biology evolved in the last century as technology provided the means to study plants at the microscopic level.
As you enjoy Mother’s Day this weekend and we prepare for Flower Day next weekend, I hope that this collection of resources will assist you in taking your class’s study of flowering plants to the next level."
