Hello, my name is Dorene Asay, I live just north of Fairbanks. I have been gathering plants for medicine and food since I was a child. I grew up in Anchorage and have lived in many places throughout Southcentral Alaska, Southeast Alaska and now in the Interior. I have found that learning the plants around me has grounded me, as I moved from place to place. I love to share the knowledge I have about plants and I am always eager to learn more. I do not have a firm understanding of the technical aspects of botany and I am excited to learn more about that throughout this course.
My favorite plant is Arnica angustifolia ssp. angustifolia Vahl. Arnica is usually the first flowering plant I harvest in the spring. It’s yellow flowers bring joy and signify the long days of sunshine and warms ahead.
Welcome Dorene,
glad you are part of this summer cohort. I hope this class will inspire you to learn more about the plants around you and make the connections with the environment that you seek! I feel a walk in the woods, tundra, etc. always helps me clear my head and get reinvigorated and refreshed. The Arnica picture you posted is great, the sunflower family is abundant pretty much anywhere you go on the globe, but its flowering heads involve a lot of terminology to accurately describe and identify members of this large family. I am posting a diagram for everybody here to review these structures.
Thank you for posting this diagram. The Asteraceae is a complex plant family for me to wrap my head around.