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Exhibition
dates May 13-14, 2000
California
Wildflower Show
31st annual California wildflower show
features flowers from across the state.
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Cream
Cups, Platystemon califnicus, Photo: Bob Walker;
©IDG Films
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More
than 150 species of freshly gathered flowers will be on display
in this year's 31st Annual California Wildflower Show
at the Oakland Museum of California on Mother's Day Weekend.
The annual exhibition features native flowers gathered in
the field, brought into the museum and sorted, identified
and labeled by botanists. The show takes place Saturday, May
13, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday, May 14, from noon to
5 p.m.
Each
year's Wildflower Show is a surprise, featuring a selection
of species from locations chosen just before the collecting
takes place, as the season's weather dictates. This year's
show will focus on locations in northern and central California
west of the Sierra Nevada.
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Wednesday and Thursday before the show, teams made up of museum
staff, California Native Plant Society (CNPS) members and other
volunteers will fan out across the area to collect as many species
of flowers as possible. Threatened or endangered species are
never collected. Friday, botanists from the Jepson Herbarium
of the University of California, Berkeley, along with other
botanists, identify the species collected. Volunteers arrange
the flowers in the museum's Natural Sciences Gallery side bays,
and a staff member of the University of California Botanical
Garden composes mixed wildflower bouquets for the exhibition.
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CNPS
volunteers and graduate students from U.C. Berkeley will be
on hand during the two-day show to answer questions. With
their assistance, visitors can learn more about using native
species in their gardens, existing threats to native wildflower
populations, conserving the botanical diversity that is found
in the state, and organizations that might be of interest
to them.
Magnifying
glasses distributed among the tables provide closer looks
at the often complex and fascinating structure of flowers.
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Goldfields,
Lasthenia californica, Photo: Bob Walker; ©IDG Films
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Accompanying
this year's Wildflower Show, slide presentations on native
flowers will take place in the gallery throughout the weekend
(exact times to be announced).
The
Annual Wildflower Show is organized by the Natural Sciences
Department of the Oakland Museum of California in collaboration
with the California Native Plant Society, which monitors the
collecting; the Jepson Herbarium of the University of California,
Berkeley; the University of California Botanical Garden; the
East Bay Municipal Utility District; and the Natural Sciences
Guild and members of the Oakland Museum of California.
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Mother's
Day Programs 2000
Two
special Mother's Day Weekend programs will accompany the Wildflower
Show.
On
Saturday, May 13, from 12 to 4 p.m. on the museum's first
level, the family program May Bouquets celebrates Mother's
Day and Asian Heritage Month. Families will decorate an uchiwa
(Japanese fan) or make a dandelion corsage for mom, and will
explore the year of the dragon through Chinese, Vietnamese
and Korean crafts. Included in museum admission. Call 510/238-3818
for information on family programs.
Jazz flugelhornist Dmitri Matheny and his quartet,
featuring Ruth Davies on bass, Darrell Grant on piano and
drummer Jason Lewis, play special music for mothers in a free
concert on Mother's Day, Sunday, May 14, at 2:30 p.m. in the
Museum Café.
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Blue-eyed
Grass, Sisyrinchium bellum, Photo: Bob Walker; ©IDG
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