Master Gardeners receive the Award of Excellence for Educational Materials from the University of Florida. The ‘Record of Change’ portable herbarium project provides responsive and timely education for residents and Master Gardeners. More than 290 local plants have been collected, identified, and organized by collection date into seasonal albums using University of Florida herbarium standards. 

“Documenting the existence of and creating an educational record of local plants is the main purpose of this project” stated Diane Wilson, lead proponent and co-facilitator of the portable herbarium project. It is “useful in a variety of settings, including as a reference for identification or information with clients in the extension office, as an instructional resource for school children learning about plant structure or the local flora, and as a teaching tool about native, cultivated, and weedy plant species at various community events,” stated Marc Frank, Extension Botanist, University of Florida herbarium, continuing ”specimens of the same species collected at different times a year can be used to illustrate how the morphology of individual plants change as they mature.”

This is the perfect pairing of science and art. We will cultivate the 2023 Master Gardener class, January 26 – April 13, 2023. Meeting in-person and online, Thursdays, 9-Noon at Levy Extension Center. $97 materials fee due January 12, 2023. Contact Barbara Edmonds, UF Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS) Extension Levy County, 486-5131 for information. Email savemygarden@ufl.edu for application or subscribe to levy.ifas.ufl.edu blog. Until next time – Happy Gardening!

Extension services are open to all without regard to race, color, age, sex, religion, national origin, or handicap.

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