'People, Plants' Symposium to be Held

Source from:  eurekareporter.com by Sharon Letts, 10/22/2006  10/24/2006

The Humboldt Botanical Gardens Foundation's annual Speakers' Symposium will explore "People and Plants: Pleasures & Pains from Plants." Three speakers will present three plants that have played major roles in the economic and physical lives of peoples and nations: tobacco, chocolate and mushrooms. The symposium will convene at the Humboldt Area Foundation's Conference Center located at 373 Indianola Road, in Bayside, at 9 a.m. on Nov. 4. Because seating is limited, participants are asked to phone HBGF at 707-442-5139 for advanced registration. Day of the event registration will be at 8:30 a.m., with available seats filled prior to 9 a.m. Roy's Place Italian Restaurant will cater a pasta lunch that is included in the registration fee of $25 for HBGF members and $30 for nonmembers. Schmidbauer Lumber Inc. and Redwood Capital Bank are sponsors of the 2006 HBGF Speakers' Symposium. Funds from the symposium support the HBGF and the 45-acre Humboldt Botanical Garden, which is under construction adjacent to the Eureka campus of the College of the Redwoods. For more information, phone Karen Angel at 707-822-2724, or send a note to kangel@humboldt1.com. For more information about the foundation, visit its Web site at www.hbgf.org. About the speakers Daniel Kenneth Harder, Ph.D., is a native of Chicago and earned his doctorate in botany from the University of California at Berkeley in 1990. He began his botanical explorations of some of the most exotic regions of the world while a student, and is currently executive director of the Arboretum at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Harder will discuss "Tobacco – Timeline and Culture." He will look at Nicotiana as botanical subject and product and highlight his work with the Food and Drug Administration on cigarettes as nicotine delivery systems and their high-tech research and development. According to Harder, "through its use as an addictive drug and the long and intense focus of the tobacco industry in understanding the production, harvesting, curing and handling of their product, tobacco has had a unique relationship with humans. Nicotiana may be one of the best studied plants." "The tobacco industry was a pioneer in early physiological studies on plants using Nicotiana as a subject. Some believe the tobacco trade supported the growth of the American colonies, was the foundation for the Dutch trading empire, the cause of the slave trade and the financial basis for victory in the American Revolution. To whatever level of influence one accepts for tobacco, every culture has been subjected and affected by Nicotiana," remarked Harder. Jeff Hogue, Ph.D., earned his doctorate in plant pathology from Cornell University in 1992. He teaches Natural History; Wildflowers, Trees and Shrubs; and Plants and Civilization, among other courses, at the College of the Redwoods. He is a regular contributor to the HBGF newsletter, The Botanical Guardian, chairs the HBGF Education Committee and is a member of the Humboldt Botanical Garden's Native Plant Selection Committee. Hogue will discuss "Chocolate: Food of the Gods." "Chocolate is a food that has a fascinating history that stretches back to the ancient civilizations of MesoAmerica, including the Olmec, Mayan, and Aztec civilizations," commented Hogue. "Prior to the conquest of the Aztec civilization by the Spanish conquistadors in the 16th century, chocolate was consumed not as a solid, but rather as a liquid beverage. "The consumption of chocolate in all its forms evokes feelings of love and contentment. It is now understood chemically why chocolate has such an effect on human emotions," he continued. "The cultural and natural history of cacao is a fascinating tale that illuminates the love affair that humans have with this noble fruit, aptly termed the 'food of the gods,'" concluded Hogue. David Lee Largent, Ph.D., earned his doctorate in botany from the University of Washington in 1968. He is a professor emeritus of botany, Humboldt State University, and was Scholar of the Year 1996-1997, with two mushroom species named in his honor since 1998. Largent will discuss "Fungi of the Redwood Forests." According to Largent, "the redwood-dominated forests of northern California support a species-rich fungus flora that is at least eight times more diverse than the vascular plant flora. Included in the 2,813 species of macrofungi thus far identified from northern California are those that are a pleasure to eat, lovely to look at, deadly, hallucinogenic, devastating to the forests and to homes, useful as medicines and growing green grass, and those that are useful as a source to dye wool, to make pigments, to make paper as well as clothes, and to sharpen knives." The symposium presentations are designed for a lay public audience interested in botany and horticulture. The symposium qualifies for five hours of U.C. Master Gardener Program Continuing Education Credit. Humboldt Botanical Garden Foundation Presents Awards The HBGF will be presenting annual awards at the Symposium. An individual who has contributed to horticulture will receive The David Douglas Award; an individual who has volunteered over a number of years to the HBGF will receive The Irene Van Natter Award; individuals who have volunteered over a number of years to the construction of the Humboldt Botanical Garden will receive The Larry E. Moss Award. Volunteers of the year will also be recgnized. Enditem