Our September guest speaker will be Roger Hammer, senior interpretive naturalist, Region 5, Miami-Dade Parks Department, and Director of Castellow Hammock Nature Center since 1977. Roger will give a slide presentation on the Everglades Wildflowers; highlighting 80 of the 306 species of native and naturalized Everglades wildflowers, including 30 species of native orchids along with three exotic naturalized orchid species.

His upcoming book Everglades Wildflowers which will be published in the Spring of 2002, will be a field guide to over 300 wildflowers of the historic Everglades (a FalconGuide). Roger began working on the book in November 1999 and submitted it to the publisher in July 2001. This is the first guide to cover the wildflowers of the Everglades region. For each species there is a description, flowering season, habitat/range, and comments. In the comments section for each species Roger has included the meaning of the Latin name in English along with any interesting edible, poisonous, and/or medicinal uses.

Come out and learn about these wonderful Florida natives, some of which may be in your orchid collection or living in your yard. You don't want to miss this one!

See you there!