Hella Roots: Cultivating Plant Knowledge

Date: May 8th 2024

Time: 7:00PM

Location: The Commons 2601 Mariposa Street San Francisco, CA 94110

Anybody can buy some plants at a big box store and grow some flowers or cherry tomatoes, especially in our easy climate. But plants are more than just living decorations. If we learn to look, we can learn an entirely different way of being, one that’s been enmeshed with human culture as long as we’ve existed. We’ll poke at flower parts, go deep into the history of food crops, and meet an artist who uses them as her medium. Forum host Alexis Madrigal, with guests from the Conservatory of Flowers and the UC Botanical Garden, will explore a bouquet of botanical questions: What is a flower? How did humans come to create something like corn from its ancestor teosinte? What does it mean for a plant to be “native”?

Featuring:

• Catherine Byrd Callaway, Horticulturist, UC Botanical Garden at Berkeley 
• Victoria Stewart, Gardens of Golden Gate Park
• Adriana Hernandez, Stanford

Experts to meet in the lobby afterwards during the plant exchange:

• Jamie Chan, Gardens of Golden Gate Park
• Johanna Gendelman and Green, Master Gardeners of San Mateo & San Francisco Counties 

Plus, we’ll be hosting a plant exchange! Bring a plant, take a plant!

Co-produced with Forum, KQED’s flagship radio show.