Join ethnobotanist Marc Williams for a meditative plant walk around the Gardens to learn more about our native trees and shrubs. Winter is the most challenging time to botanize during the year. When flowers, fruits, and leaves are mostly gone, we must turn to more subtle clues to determine the identification of many plants. We will discuss off-season woody plant characteristics, ethnobotanical applications, and various resources available to you for further study. This class is both indoors and outdoors, so please dress appropriately for the weather.

Marc Williams is an ethnobiologist. He has studied the people, plant, mushroom, microbe connection intensively while learning to employ botanicals and other life forms for food, medicine, and beauty. His training includes a Bachelor's degree in Environmental Studies concentrating in Sustainable Agriculture with a minor in Business from Warren Wilson College and a Master’s degree in Appalachian Studies concentrating in Sustainable Development with a minor in Geography and Planning from Appalachian State University. Marc has spent more than two decades working at a multitude of restaurants and various farms. He has also travelled extensively, visiting more than 200 botanical gardens and research institutions in 30+ countries and across the U.S. He is the primary facilitator of the websites www.botanyeveryday.com and www.plantsandhealers.org and has worked with over 100 organizations while teaching hundreds of classes to thousands of people about the marvelous world of humans and their interface with other organisms. His greatest hope is that this effort may help improve our challenging global ecological situation.