BOTANICAL SOCIETY OF WESTERN PENNSYLVANIA

WELCOME! The Botanical Society of Western Pennsylvania is one of the oldest botanical organizations in the country. Since 1886, we have met and served as a resource of knowledge on the flowers of Pennsylvania. This is accomplished with the help of professional and amateur botanists, monthly meetings and weekly fieldtrips. The Society published a book in 2001, WILDFLOWERS OF PENNSYLVANIA, This publication contains 612 colored photographs of different wildflowers of Pennsylvania. These beautiful photographs were taken by members of the Society. It also gives a brief description of the botanical facts about the plant, the habitat where the plant is located, location in the state where the flowers can be found and the status of the flower in Pennsylvania as to rare, threatened and/or endangered.

Checklists of the flora located in specific areas have been performed by the members. Some of these are the: National Great Meadow and Battlefield of Fort Necessity, the National Historic Site of Friendship Hill, the Spruce Bog located atop the Laurel Mountain, the flora of Schenley Park and the Mount Davis Bog.

Frequently, the members are called upon to perform a “salvage operation.” Plants that are going to be destroyed, usually due to construction, are collected and transplanted to an area of similar habitat.

Extended botanical forays are scheduled, usually in early summer to study the different species of plants located there. Places such as the Bruce Peninsula in Ontario,Canada; Dolly Sods in West Virginia, the Pine Barrens in New Jersey and the Sand Dunes of Erie, Pennsylvania have been visited by many of the members.

Our early affiliation with the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, especially the Section of Botany, which has served as a repository for many of our collections and slides of the wildflowers of Pennsylvania is always ongoing. Many of our members serve as docents to the Phipps Conservatory. Members are called upon to teach classes in Botany at the Pittsburgh Civic Garden Center and give public presentations to Garden Clubs, other plant societies and organizations.

Close affiliation with other plant societies has always existed. The members of the Westmoreland County Botanical Society were originally in our Society. Due to distance and time of travel, they formed their own Society. Close alliance with the Native Plant Society of Northeastern Ohio, Bowman's Hill Native Plant Society and Pennsylvania Native Plant Society is present.