Community and botanists alike celebrate 46 years of spring color, curiosity, and connection
By Kat Tabor
Spring was in full bloom at Mount Pisgah Arboretum as the Wildflower Festival returned for its 46th year, welcoming the community and plant lovers of all kinds for a day of blooming meadows, local art and hands-on learning. The celebration took place on May 18.
The family-friendly event, co-hosted by the Native Plant Society of Oregon and Lane Community College, brought together dozens of local vendors, nature groups and longtime volunteers. From educational displays to guided walks and wildflower identification stations, the festival offered something for both seasoned botanists and curious first-timers.
Admission to the event was $15, but festival-goers could put that cost toward a Mount Pisgah Arboretum membership at the gate. Student memberships start at $40 and come with perks, including a Lane County Parks parking pass and free admission to the fall Mushroom Festival and much more.
The Wildflower Festival’s roots stretch back with Lane Community College’s biology and botany classes — and it all started with a bang.
“The story goes, the first Wildflower Festival was in 1980. They were setting up the display — it was a very different situation back then, very rustic. And Mount St. Helens blew during the setup,” says Susie Holmes, a biology instructor at Lane and a founding member of the Cascade Mycological Society.
Mount St. Helens erupted on May 18, 1980. Even though the volcano — still considered active by the U.S. Geological Survey — is about 200 miles from Eugene and 52 miles northeast of Portland, people in Lane County still felt the impact. Ash drifted through the air, and some say that they even heard the explosion. “They kind of knew it was coming,” says Holmes, who adds a bit of festival lore with a favorite story about the late Freeman Rowe, a longtime biology professor at LCC. As the mountain erupted, Rowe was overheard calling out, “Thar she blows!” Holmes says.
Rowe is credited with launching both the Wildflower and Mushroom Festivals through Lane’s biology department. Holmes — once a student in his mushroom biology class and later his teaching assistant — now carries on his legacy as the course’s lead instructor. Today, she’s widely recognized as a community leader in botany, mycology and biology.
“He’s [Rowe] kind of the founding father of this event,” Holmes says.
She’s been bringing her students to the Wildflower Festival for years. This spring, her ecosystems: wildflowers class attended as part of their coursework. She’ll return in the fall with a new group — this time, to study mushrooms as previously covered in The Torch.
“I have been facilitating students’ involvements in these festivals since 2009,” Holmes says.
“It was founded as a partnership between Lane Community College and Mount Pisgah Arboretum with student involvement from its inception,” she adds.
In addition to teaching courses on botany, ecology and evolution, Holmes has built her career around celebrating the small things — fungi, flowers and the way ecosystems shift with the seasons. She co-founded the Macrofungi of Lane County project and helps organize the fall Mushroom Festival at Pisgah.
The Native Plant Society of Oregon is one of the festival’s key community partners — and its members share a strong connection to the event. The society has several chapters across the state, with the Eugene-based Emerald Chapter serving the local region. Bruce Waugh, a lifetime member, estimates he’s attended about 15 Wildflower Festivals over the years.
“It is a great thing to stimulate intellectual curiosity about botany,” Waugh says of the festival.
“It feels like Christmas for botanists,” adds Sarah Erskine, a Native Plant Society Emerald Chapter board member and Ph.D. student at the University of Oregon.
How can students get involved in protecting native plants? “Well, join the Native Plant Society of Oregon,” Waugh says. And yes, there’s a student membership option.
Before leaving the event, Waugh shared a special poem he wrote for the Native Plant Society. He first recited it from memory, then provided The Torch a written copy later on:
The Botany Blues or the Tangled Taxonomy Tango
By Bruce Waugh
Taxonomy you evil wench
your fickle ways have left a stench
upon my brain and all it knew
abandoned now because of you.
I learned your Latin and your Greek
the secret language that you speak
to try to find the true and right
I studied late into the night.
On fixes pre and suff I grilled
to be a member of your guild.
With knowledge gained I stood out proud
above the low and madding crowd.
It’s true I did abuse your power
impressing females by the hour
with rare polysyllabic words
I came across as king of nerds.
But at the apex of my fame
you turned on me and darkness came.
Pride had come before the fall
and now I knew nothing at all.
You dropped a bomb upon my Scrophs.
When I complained you simply scoffed.
Your splitters split and split again
a cruel process without an end.
You lacerated Lilliaceae, chopped off a leg and arm,
leaving Agava and Asparagaceae with no concern for harm.
Coprinus, Coprinellus, Coprinopsis! I can’t keep it straight.
Xerocomus, Xerocomellus preposterous! Was that a Bolete I ate?
This ain’t daytime TV you know you ought to have some shame.
How would you feel if someone else, split you and changed your name?
As homewrecker you have no par
but don’t you think you’ve gone too far?
You broke up families right and left
and with your PCRs you cleft
a gaping hole inside my brain
where now only confusions reign
and all is flushed down the drain
for worship of a DNA chain.
Biology, morphology, phylogeny you can’t make up your mind
on what a species even is, much less how it’s defined.
But wait all hope has not died yet.
Stand up, fight back, I will, you bet!
You’re putting nouns on verbs you see (1)
constraining things that should be free.
Hybrids bold fight back as well
and tell your brackets “Go to hell.”
Vestigial Aristotelian tidiness (2)
has led you to this awful mess.
There are no natural boundaries
on evolution’s many trees. (3)
(1) Merlin Sheldrake, Entangled Life
(2) Daniel C. Dennett, Darwin’s Dangerous Idea
(3) Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion
The Wildflower Festival returns every spring, with its sister event — the Mushroom Festival — held each fall. Dates for the next Mushroom Festival haven’t been announced yet, but more information is available at mountpisgaharboretum.org. To get involved with local native plant advocacy or learn more about student memberships, visit the Emerald Chapter of the Native Plant Society of Oregon at npsoregon.org/wp/em.
