Herbs, Herbals & Herbalists with Judith Sumner

200 Trafton Road,Springfield MA 01108

18 February, 2022

Description

Judith Sumner is a botanist who will talk on early herbals and plant life. Judith Sumner is a botanist who will talk on early herbals and plant life, including the Doctrine of Signatures, an ancient practice of using plants for their beneficial capacities through observation. She will also discuss ancient and modern herb and spice uses as part of herbal history. Discussion will include Judith’s recently published book Plants Go to War: A Botanical History of World War II, which examines victory gardens, timber, fibers, rubber, medicinal plants, herbalism, camouflage, survival practices and botanical gardens in wartime. Sumner specializes in ethnobotany, flowering plants, plant adaptations, and garden history. She has taught extensively both at the college level and at botanical gardens, including the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University and Garden in the Woods. Judith graduated from Vassar College and completed graduate studies in botany at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. She studied at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and at the British Museum (Natural History) and did extensive field work in the Pacific region on the genus Pittosporum and is widely published.