Green thumbs
Green zebra tomatoes, jalapenos, and squash were just a few of the vegetables sprouting in LC’s greenhouse last spring, thanks to the Green Thumbs Club. A corps of ten to fifteen stu-
dents resurrected the neglected greenhouse near Hobbs Hall. Kelley Deegan ’13, president of Green Thumbs, tended the plants all summer as she did two campus internships, one work- ing for physical plant as main- tainer of beds throughout the campus, and the other doing or- chid research with Dr. Nancy Cowden, associate professor of biology, and Dr. Priscilla Gan- nicott, professor of chemistry. Kelley received a $2,000 Under- graduate Summer Science Re- search Fellowship from the Virginia Foundation for Inde- pendent Colleges to conduct the field research on orchids and in- sect behavior. Kelley’s own green thumb got
started last year when she took plant biology and introduction
to environmental science classes. She switched from chemistry to environmental science when she found her new passion. “I want to do something with
plants, permaculture, and envi- ronmental science,” she said, noting the irony that she was never really interested in her mother’s garden or her family’s Italian farming roots until she got to college. The greenhouse provided a
good beginning. Thadd Williams ’12 built waist-high beds, which the club filled with new soil. They made compost from the cafeteria’s greens. Fu- ture plans include a blackberry patch on the steep hill outside the greenhouse and revamping a small pond in the greenhouse. They want to build a waterfall decked out in orchids and ferns and fill the pond with water lilies and goldfish. Thadd, a biomedical science
major, aspires to be a large ani- mal veterinarian and work with
small farmers to encourage sus- tainable agriculture. When he moved to Lynchburg two years ago, he started helping out at Lynchburg Grows, an urban farm that takes a hands-in-the-dirt ap- proach to teaching others how sustainable food production pro- motes a healthy planet. Thadd was happy to
lend his skills to restor- ing LC’s greenhouse. “I want to be part of edu- cating people about it,” he said. At age thirty, Thadd said he was at- tracted to LC because of its cadaver lab and “as- tounding science program.” He hopes the green-
house will become a club- house for a variety of sustainable initiatives.
“The greenhouse can be a tool to get other things done,” he said.
Healing the planet with plants
James McDaniel ’12, biology major from Madison Heights, Va., was one of nine students selected from across the U.S. to receive a PLANTS grant from the Botanical Society of America to attend BOTANY 2011, the annual scientific con- ference for the Botanical Society of America, Society for Economic Botany, American Fern Society, and American So- ciety of Plant Taxonomists. James was nominated by his advisor,
Dr. Nancy Cowden. He did a summer re- search program with Dr. Cowden and Dr. Priscilla Gannicott on rose fragrances. The goal was to compare fragrance pro- duction in known cultivated roses with their antique and wild ancestors.
The PLANTS program is funded by the
National Science Foundation and Botanical Society of America to bring talented and diverse undergraduates to the BOTANY 2011 meeting held in St. Louis, Missouri in July. The theme this year was “Healing the
Planet.” The meetings included symposia on medicinal plants, economic botany, and conservation of the world’s tropical forests (including forest management by indige- nous people), as well as sessions on plant systematics, plant genomics, pollination bi- ology, population and community ecology, and incorporating microbes into plant community ecology.
Fall 2011 LC MAGAZINE 13
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