Wander and Wonder Walks at Muller Field Station

 WONDERFUL opportunity for weekly wanders/Wonder Walks at Muller Field Station on Friday mornings!

The FLCC Muller Field Station invites you to join them for weekly Wander and Wonder Walks on Fridays from 9am-10am at 6455 Co Rd 36, Honeoye, NY 14471. Each week they will walk the same loop at Muller with a different special guest. In the rich tradition of many naturalists before us, they will practice observing and being present: seeing, hearing, and documenting. Plus, you'll get to “re-experience” this short foray through various lenses each week as colleagues from various arts and sciences disciplines join us. 

These walks are free and open to all.  You may attend one or many as your schedule allows.

Spring Ephemeral Walk at Domine Trail in Fishers, NY

 Saturday, April 5, 2025 at 10 AM

 

Our Sesquicentennial walk at Domine 

Walk the Domine Trails with the Canandaigua Botanical Society to see early spring wildflowers.  We will meet in the parking lot behind the fire hall in Fishers at 10 AM. (7853 Main St Fishers, Victor, NY 14564)  If you prefer, we will also carpool from the Sly Street parking lot (behind the Ontario County Court House) at 9:15 AM. Please send an email to canandaiguabotanical@gmail.com if you wish to carpool. 

 

** Canandaigua Botanical Society's Newsletter: The Vasculum **

Beginning in 2024 Fred Haynes offered to edit a Canandaigua Botanical Society newsletter.  The Vasculum is planned to be a quarterly newsletter distributed digitally.  We will publish it here on our weblog and members will also receive it as a pdf file via email. 

Fred would love to receive input for future issues from any member who would like to contribute either a full article, a short text item, or simply an image or two.  The success of any club newsletter is in the diversity of its content and that is best accomplished with multiple contributors.

 The current "Spring 2025" issue is

now available here!

  You are encouraged to submit material to fredmhaynes55@gmail.com. 

Future submissions should be to Fred by May 20, 2025 

Be sure to take a guess at our mystery plants!

 

We have printed copies of the 2024 Vasculum newsletters now available at the Wood (Canandaigua), FLCC, Gorham, and Victor-Farmington libraries. Please let us know what libraries we should ask to hold them.

Here is a chronological listing of archived issues:

                       Winter 2024; Volume 1, Number 1          

                       Spring 2024: Volume 1, Number 2        

                       Summer 2024: Volume 1, Number 3

                        Fall 2024: Volume 1, Number 4

                        Spring 2025: Volume 2, Number 1

 

Thursday, April 24: Celebrating Trees!

7 PM, Thursday, April 24, 2025 at Wood Library.  

Celebrate Trees !

The City of Canandaigua Tree Advisory Board (TAB) invites you to celebrate trees in April. We’ll begin with an evening presentation at the Wood Library on North Main Street on Thursday April 24th at 7 pm. Dr. Elizabeth Hane, Professor at RIT, will share information about all the good things we receive from trees and our Canandaigua urban forest, and Judi Cermak will let you know how you can nominate a notable tree for recognition in the City’s Heritage Tree Program.

This program is free and open to everyone.

Friday, April 25 at 1 PM: City of Canandaigua Arbor Day planting at Kershaw Park

  The City of Canandaigua has been a Tree City USA for 33 years.  

Friday April 25th, is Arbor Day. The City of Canandaigua Tree Advisory Board will hold a celebration and tree planting, cosponsored by the City Parks Department and Wood Library, at 1 pm at Kershaw Park near the playground. The program will focus on how to plant a tree and will include planting new trees to replace those lost in last summer’s tornado at the park. And you can help!

The program is free and open to everyone.

Rush Oak Openings Unique Area - April 27

We've been invited to join the Victor Hiking Trails educational event

Rush Oak Openings Unique Area 

Sunday, April 27th from 2-4 PM.  

Some wildflowers, and some geology! Join us for an educational tour of Rush Oak Openings Unique Area. Geologist Fred Haynes will lead this tour. The 230 acre Rush Oak Openings Unique Area features the globally rare plant community commonly referred to as an "oak opening" or "oak savanna." This site is the only known intact oak opening remaining in New York state. Oak openings were common in the Midwest (where the prairie met eastern forests) prior to European settlement. In addition to the oak openings habitat, there are oak woodlands, limestone woodlands, wetlands, successional old field communities and the transitions between each of these types.

Directions
From exit 11 on I-390, head south on Route 15 (West Henrietta Road) about 3.1 miles to the parking lot on Route 15.

GPS 42.96156, -77.68659

Parking
There is a small parking lot at the end of a 200 yard dirt road when you pull off Route 15. See photos.

Reference
• https://dec.ny.gov/places/rush-oak-openings-unique-area

 Victor Hiking Trails will be taking reservations to keep the group under 30 people: 
https://www.meetup.com/victor-hiking-trails-meetup/events/306749682/

Fred shared this link if you'd like more information about Rush Oaks Opening: https://guides.nynhp.org/oak-openings/ 

** FRIDAY, MAY 2, 2025: Annual Meeting **

Our annual meeting will be on Friday, May 2 

at Mertensia Lodge in Farmington, NY.

 

** SAVE THIS DATE!!!  

FRIDAY, May 2: Mertensia Park wanders, Annual meeting and potluck meal. 

1438 Mertensia Road, Farmington, NY 14425    

We have the Mertensia Lodge reserved from 8 AM – 10 PM.  Our potluck meal will begin at 6 PM with a brief annual meeting afterwards.  People are asked to bring a dish to pass and place settings for each person in your group.

We encourage walks along Mud Creek to enjoy the Mertensia Bluebells and other spring flowers before the meeting.  Members are encouraged to bring “items to share” before or after the meal (photos, poems, stories, nature discoveries, music, books, etc). 

Monday, May 19: Population Census for American Columbo

 REGISTRATION REQUIRED: send an email to canandaiguabotanical@gmail.com

We will meet on Monday, May 19 at the FLCC East Campus to conduct a population census of American Columbo under the direction of Dr Bruce Gilman.  You can read more about the American Columbo in our Spring 2025 edition of the VASCULUM.   Details with location and possible carpooling will be shared when you register.  

 

 

Canandaigua Botanical Society Planning Meeting

 Tuesday, May 20, 2025 from 1-3 PM

 in the Ewing room at Wood Library

 Join us in the Ewing Room of Wood Library on Tuesday, May 20 at 1pm to help continue planning events for our 151st year.  All are welcome.  If you're unable to attend the meetings, please feel free to email ideas to us at canandaiguabotanical@gmail.com.

** Saturday, May 31, 10 AM - Guided walk at Zurich Bog **

Active membership and Registration is required for this event

Please send email to canandaiguabotanical@gmail.com 

We are limiting this event to 25 members 

(we currently have 12 people signed up) 

 

A National Natural Landmark with a Sphagnum bog and floating bog cradled by glacial drumlins, Zurich Bog covers 650 acres in Arcadia, NY.  Anytime is a great time to enjoy this Bergen Swamp Preservation property.  Based on past visits to Zurich Bog we are likely to see: Pitcher Plants, Lady Slippers, Cucumber Root, Trillium, Foam Flowers, Mayapple, Blood Root, several varieties of fern, Partridge Berry, Gold Thread, Ginseng, Solomon Seal, Sundew, tulip trees, Marsh Marigolds, and more.  

We would like to have a count of who to expect.  Please let us know you're joining us by sending an email to canandaiguabotanical@gmail.com.

A carpool will leave the Sly Street parking lot by 9 AM.  

Saturday, June 7, 10 AM: National Trail Day walk along Ontario Pathways

Celebrate National Trails Day 

along the Ontario Pathways trail in Stanley, NY

We will meet at the Stanley parking lot at 10 AM on Saturday, June 7th and walk a mile west to the bridge over Flint Creek.  Upon our return to the Stanley parking lot you may like a short stroll north to enjoy the third installment of the Ontario County Arts Council Ontario Pathways Artwork.

 

Please let us know if you'd like to carpool from the Sly Street parking lot at 9:15 AM.    

** Orchid Talk and Potluck at Burroughs Audubon Nature Club **

 Friday, June 27 at Burroughs Audubon Nature Club

301 Railroad Mills Road, Pittsford, NY

 Wild orchids of Western New York State  by Fred Haynes

 Spotting an orchid in the wild can be a thrill.  Some are eye-catching and spectacularly colorful.  Others are small and harder to find and identify. In this presentation, I will discuss the wild orchids I have seen and photographed in western New York State and the parks, preserves, and habitats where they were found. We will learn their identifying features and the unique parasitic and symbiotic relationships some species have with other plants and fungi in the woodlands and wetlands.

More information to follow

Seeking Garden/Landscaping Helpers

 Occasionally we receive requests from people who are looking for help with maintenance of their gardens and landscaping.  We currently have a member in Geneva seeking someone to help her with springtime garden chores in the next three weeks as a recent knee surgery is limiting her from doing it alone.    

If you are able to help in this circumstance or are interested in being contacted for future requests, please send us an email at canandaiguabotanical@gmail.com.    

 

** Membership Donations **

 

The Canandaigua Botanical Society remains dedicated to advancing knowledge and enjoyment of plants found in the Finger Lakes Region and beyond. 

Renew or become a Canandaigua Botanical Society member: 

Benefits including:

Membership emails

Our Vasculum newsletters

Field trips and indoor presentations 

       (some for members only)

Learning about regional plants

Supporting the Finger Lakes Herbarium, 

         NYS FLORA Atlas and 

         local conservation projects

Enjoying the outdoors

Meeting people with similar interests

Payments of $10 per individual or $15 per family can be made in three ways:

1.     By check to Canandaigua Botanical Society (send to our treasurer: Bill Bross, 31 Alpine Way, Victor, NY 14564)

2.     By cash or check at Canandaigua Botanical Society events

3.     Through the Canandaigua Botanical Society FLACE account at Canandaigua National Bank

You can expect an email receipt when funds are received and we update our membership list. 

We look forward to seeing you in our 151st year!