WATER PLANTS

Nymphoides invader

I've written a gracious plenty about hikes and plant hunts lately, and many of these explorations with Vickie Sullivan have been missions to find water plants in the lakes around Sewanee, Tennessee. Dr. Sullivan was recently asked to be the kick-off speaker/lecturer for the Ora et Labora Program Series sponsored by St. Mary's Convent here at Sewanee, and our treks through chigger-ridden areas and searches for elusive lakes have been focused on finding plants that live in wet-habitats.

In the past, Dr. Sullivan has been more at home in the wet habitats of Louisiana and Florida, so my depictions of failed searches and scant findings on The Mountain were not hyperbolic sketches. However, yesterday at Lake Cheston, she discovered enough specimens to illustrate the talk she'll give on September 26, and after bathing these specimens under the garden hose, she placed them in a small aquarium on the front porch, leaving them with the admonition, "Y'all stay alive now." I think they're safe from the wildlife in the surrounding woods, but one always takes a deep breath when putting a plant in the garden or leaving any kind of vegetation in vessels outdoors around here.

I'm posting the flier about Dr. Sullivan's workshop that's being circulated in Sewanee and its environs. It's an invitation to those who live further afield in case they want to sally over from marsh country or other environments to hear what she has to say. She won't be mentioning any of our failed explorations, and she was fortunately immune to the chiggers that attacked me on one of our hikes to find aquatic plants, so she should present her subject without unsightly scratching and twitching on the 26th.

Here's the flier Sister Madeline Mary designed to advertise Why Water Plants Don't Drown, title of the program and of the book written by Dr. Sullivan and illustrated by Susan Elliott, another botanist and artist from Montrose, Colorado: