This five-part class with botanist Ted Elliman will cover the incredible variety and beauty of spring-blooming wildflowers in Berkshire County. The three online evening sessions will present the particular spring flora you can expect to find in different kinds of forest communities, such as sugar maple forest and oak forest, and in wetland habitats. In the two Saturday field sessions, we will explore all of these natural communities, identifying and photographing spring flora along the way. Recommended for field sessions: hand lens, camera, clothing/footwear suitable for trails.

Ted Elliman has worked for the Native Plant Trust as a staff botanist, invasive species program manager, and as an instructor of botany, ecology and conservation classes. His book, The Wildflowers of New England, an identification guide to much of the region's native flora, was published in 2016 by Timber Press. In the 1980's, Ted started and directed an environmental education and wilderness adventure center in the Berkshires. Since the mid-1990's, he has periodically led natural history tours to southwest China, where he worked for two years as a teacher and forest ecologist.

Advance registration is required.