Picturing Plants Library Exhibition

On Display in the Library

This exhibit showcases the work of 32 students focused on botanical illustration, field plant taxonomy, vegetation ecology, and restoration ecology. The one-quarter learning community was organized around field trips to Sun Lakes State Park, Glacial Heritage County Park, and Nisqually Wildlife Refuge. By linking art and botany, students applied their sketching, pen and ink, and watercolor skills to developing their understanding of plant forms and ecological relationships. The morphological and ecological differences they studied through their direct observations in the high desert of eastern Washington as compared to the coniferous forests, riparian woodlands, wetlands, and prairies of western Washington informed their illustration and written work. The fusion of art and botany is a long tradition at Evergreen. Students in this year’s Picturing Plants program worked on illustrations for a future second edition of the recently published Vascular Plants of the South Sound Prairies, now available in the Greener Store. This multi-year, interdisciplinary project has involved students in herbarium-based floristic research since 2003 with support from the Evergreen Natural History Museum. Please explore and enjoy the displays of student work in the glass cases and on the staircase walls of the library.