Hello, everyone! I am Ho Giustino, a dual enrollment student at University of Alaska for Anthropology and Indigenous Studies. I’m from Winnipeg, Manitoba, but I currently reside in New Jersey. Nice to meet you:)
I came to take the class on Alaskan Flora as I pursue through my studies on Indigenous Studies, especially Inuit Studies, where I got to know quite different culture and lifestyle and floras and faunas being bases for their lifestyles. By knowing and learning various kinds and characteristics of Alaskan plants, I want to further understand the lifestyles of Inuit. Although I haven’t particularly studied on botanicology, I have abundant knowledge on Alaska and the Arctic which might help. (However, from the childhood, I was very interested in the plants.) As a form of hobby, I enjoy gardening my own backyard as well as some public garden, as a member of local gardening club.
My favorite plant for now is the moss. What interests me the most is their extrinsic surviving skill, as long as being the pioneer species for the development of the habitat. Aesthetically speaking, the greenness of mosses gives me healing as well as the meaning of life to the local area. In addition, the fact that the mosses are one of the first plant species that globe had hosted and its distinctive and underknown shape compared to other plants make me interested further more.
Thank you so much everyone and I hope we can learn many things from this course regardless of the objectives and affiliations.
Welcome Ho Giustino,
that is a gorgeous picture of the moss with the purple mushrooms. Yes, I am getting more and more interested in mosses and come to notice them more when hiking in the forest and other places. Together with lichens and mushrooms, they create their own miniature landscapes.