CNPS East Bay

The East Bay Dandelion Tribe, a Love Story

Wednesday, May 28, 2025 — 7:30 pm - 9:00 pm

The East Bay Dandelion Tribe, a Love Story

Speaker: Bruce Homer-Smith
Wednesday, May 28, 7:30 pm
Location: Don Tatzin Community Hall, at the Lafayette Library and Learning Center

PLEASE NOTE: This presentation will take place in-person and won’t be livestreamed.


Right photo: Keir Morse (CC BY-SA-NC 3.0). Left photo: © Wilde Legard.

Bruce Homer-Smith will take you deep into the gorgeous and underappreciated world of plants in the East Bay dandelion tribe of the Asteraceae family. We have 38 species in the East Bay, 22 of them native.

The amazing pictures above are of the same species; can you name it? Bruce’s pictorial key will show you how, using characteristics you can easily see in the field. (The plant in the photos is Agoseris grandiflora, giant mountain dandelion.)
 
Agenda

  • How Bruce came to fall in love with the dandelions.
  • An introduction to Bruce’s website, PlantID.net.
  • Slides showing what to look for when you meet a member of the Asteraceae in the field.
  • How to use Bruce’s “Field Key to the East Bay Dandelion Tribe.” It’s picture-based and uses easily observable field characteristics. We’ll have lots of copies on hand ($10 if you want to take one home).
  • As a group, we’ll look at slides and use the key to identify species, then you’ll look at specimens and identify species on your own or in a small group.

If you have a hand lens, bring it to see the beauty of the flowers up close. (You’ll be able to use the dandelion key without any flower magnification.)

 
Bruce’s goal: to get you to come to a screeching halt every time you encounter a member of the dandelion tribe. Once you get acquainted with these beauties, you’ll keep learning more as you encounter them in different seasons and settings. You’ll be digging into nature instead of passing it by.

Bruce Homer-Smith is the author of PlantID.net, a non-commercial, educational website designed for people curious about California’s wild plants. He’s been adding to it for 14 years, ever since he retired as a database developer. He uses pictures and short descriptions to tell stories about the plants in our local parks. His goal is to show you enough so that you’ll be able to recognize and make friends with the plants you encounter.
Here’s an extra incentive to come to the meeting: We’ll be giving away a nice selection of gently used books on botany, gardening, and wildlife biology.

CNPS East Bay Chapter meetings are free of charge and open to everyone. We provide light refreshments at our in-person meetings. This meeting will take place in person only and will not be recorded.