Our Northern Neck Chapter of the Virginia Native Plant Society is thrilled to be offering a free sit-in-your own-home Zoom presentation entitled “Getting to Know Virginia’s Ferns” on Thursday, Oct. 16th at 7 pm. Our speaker will be Dr. Jordan Metzgar from Virginia Tech. Dr. Metzgar is a fern-loving botanist and the Curator of Virginia Tech’s Massey Herbarium as well as a teacher of plant taxonomy. The Massey Herbarium has been a repository, not only for specimens of Virginia’s flora, but also for much of the Southeastern US flora since 1927.
Nearly everyone can identify a fern, but few know little about the variety we have all around us, so join this Zoom and LEARN. Virginia has about 70 ferns and about 27 of them occur in the Northern Neck with the Middle Peninsula having a few more. They are all spectacular and add natural beauty to any property or garden. Dr. Metzgar’s program will be a great introduction to our native ferns.
Aside from teaching Plant Taxonomy at Tech, ferns have been and continues to be Dr. Metzgar’s research focus. This focus includes all aspect of fern biology – taxonomy, modeling the impact of climate change, old-growth forest ecology and ethnobotany. He also runs an active outreach program in the local community to share his botanical knowledge and enthusiasm for natural history. While an undergraduate at Cornell University, Jordan became fascinated by ferns which led him to a Ph.D. at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks and a career in botany to further his passion. The Walking Fern is his favorite plant which has not yet been found in the Northern Neck or Middle Peninsula. He has been at Virginia Tech for eight years and lives in Christiansburg with his wife and two young sons.
