Fascination of Plants Day set for May 18

Thursday, May 11, 2017

Fascination of Plants Day 2017 is a worldwide coordinated activity to get as many people as possible around the world fascinated by plants and enthused about the importance of plant science. Plant science is of critical significance to the social and environmental landscape now and into the future.

“Fascination of Plants Day is a fun, family-appropriate event for anyone interested in plants, or for plant lovers to use to introduce their not-yet-plant-loving friends to the topic,” said Rebecca Roston, assistant professor of biochemistry and head of the Center for Plant Science Innovation Education and Outreach.

Invited high school students will spend the day touring the Beadle Center, Backyard Farmer Garden, the herbarium and plant library in Keim Hall and the East Campus greenhouses. They will also learn about plant root fungus, carotenoids, grains, food pigments, and more from University of Nebraska–Lincoln scientists and graduate students.

The public is invited to the Beadle Center from 4–6 p.m. for plant related activities.

“We will have interactive tours, hands-on demonstrations and you will be able to interact with plant-focused researchers. Come and see the amazing research done at the University of Nebraska that helps make Nebraska farms strong, and on the cutting edge of plant research,” Roston said.

Some of the activities will include:

  • Venus Fly Trap Feedings
  • Touch Plant Giveaway
  • HOPS Research
  • Soybean-based feedstocks for aquaculture
  • How roots sense gravity
  • Who is George Beadle, and why did he win the Nobel prize?

A tour of the Earl G. Maxwell Arboretum on East Campus, led by Emily Levine, extension technologist for the Nebraska Forest Service, will begin at 5 p.m.

Animals and humans need plants to survive. According to the European Plant Science Organisation, which launched the fourth international “Fascination of Plants Day” in 2017, the goal of this worldwide coordinated activity is to plant virtual and constantly germinating seeds in our collective minds that plant science is of critical significance to the social and environmental landscape now and into the future.”

Fascination of Plants Day is sponsored by the Center for Plant Science Innovation and the Department of Agronomy and Horticulture.

Edgar Cahoon, director of Center for Plant Science Innovation, Steven Harris, professor of plant pathology and Jeff Mower, associate professor of agronomy are also members of the Fascination of Plants Day planning team.

More details at https://go.unl.edu/plantsday

More Agronomy and Horticulture News

Fascination of Plants Day
Fascination of Plants Day