There will be a Celebration of Life memorial honoring recently departed NSWFS member Keith Vaughan at the Royal Nova Scotia Yacht Squadron, 2372 Purcells Cove Rd
on Sunday, June 28 between 2:00 pm – 4:00 pm.
Please read Keith’s Obituary to learn more of his many talents and the wonderful life he lived.
Allison MacNeil is a botany student taking her Masters at St. Mary’s University. In 2024, the Nova Scotia Wild Flora Society provided support for her research with Iva frutescens (Marsh Elder). She just wrote to update us on her progress:
“I successfully defended my thesis in early April and submitted my final draft to the school shortly after. I wanted to send a full copy of it your way which you can find at the link below! We are also in the process of publishing my chapter 2 and I can also send it when that goes through!
https://library2.smu.ca/handle/01/33225
I wanted to thank you guys again for investing in my research and giving me the opportunity to share my research with the NSWFS multiple times. It’s been an incredible addition to my education and experience as a student, and I am very grateful for the opportunity.
Due to the 100% chance of rain on May 25, we will postpone our outdoor member’s meeting at Penhorn Lake in Dartmouth to Saturday May 30 at 6:30pm. This day works best for Rosemarie.
Rosmarie Lohnes of Helping Nature Heal will be showing us the remarkable restoration work they have been doing with native flora around the lake. Then we can hike the short trail around the lake to see what else we can find. The trail is rated as easily accessible.
To get there, take Prince Albert Dr. to just below the Superstore near the 111. Turn at the intersection to continue on Prince Albert as it goes to the east of the Superstore. Just round the corner turn right onto Harris Road, then immediately turn right at Curley Dr. This will turn into PenhornDr. by Alderney School. There is a small parking lot at the end of the Penhorn Dr. in front of the public washrooms. Overflow parking is along Penhorn Dr.
Acadia’s annual Native Plant Sale will take place on the Formal Lawn of the Harriet Irving Botanical Gardens at Acadia University in Wolfville. It’s the large lawn just to the South of the Walled Garden (enter main gates and turn left!).
This is one of the best sources of hard to find native plants in Nova Scotia. It is very popular, so get there early!
Photo: Lisa Proulx
My name is Hiromu Nakao, and I am a PhD student at the Gregor Mendel Institute in Austria.We are currently building a collection of natural accessions of the liverwort Marchantia polymorpha for genomic and evolutionary studies, and I am particularly interested in obtaining accessions from Canada. For this reason, I am reaching out to you.
If you would be willing to help, or if you know colleagues or collaborators who might be interested in contributing, I would be very grateful if you could share this request with them as well.
To facilitate the collection of additional Canadian samples, I will be visiting Vancouver in June. If it would be possible to collect samples and send them there by June 5, that would be greatly appreciated. For this project, we are only collecting living material, so dried samples will not be needed.
If this is not feasible, sending samples to Vienna would also work perfectly well.
All contributors will, of course, be acknowledged in future publications.
Thank you very much for your time and consideration. I would greatly appreciate any assistance you may be able to provide.
If helpful, samples may be sent to the following address in Vancouver:
Liam Irwin
Forest Sciences Centre
2424 Main Mall, Room 2051
Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z4
Canada
Board Member Peter Steiner will be conducting a joint hike with the Blomidon Field Naturalists and the NSWFS to look at the variation in anther colour in Yellow Trout Lilies. This is of interest in how it attracts different pollinators. We will also enjoy the many other spring ephemerals in bloom in the park. Because of numbers, we are holding two identical hikes, one at 10:00AM and the other at 11:30. Be sure to specify which one you prefer when you register. We will meet in the parking lot near the entrance to Blomidon Provincial Park, off Pereau Rd.
Please register here
If you need a ride or are able to give a ride, please contact our new car pooling coordinator, Sheila Pugsley sheilapugsley@gmail.com
Keith Vaughan was an active member of the Nova Scotia Wild Flora Society for more years than we can count. A chemistry professor at Saint Mary’s University, Keith was especially interested in photography, botany, and lichens. He was very involved in our meetings, asking pertinent questions and often seconding motions. He was practically an ex officio member of the Board. We were privileged to have Keith, an award winning photographer whose work appeared in Formac publications, participate in our annual January Members’ Photo Night. We were also fortunate to have Keith give talks to our membership. The presentation on Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks, given jointly with his wife, botanist Marion Sensen, Nov 26, 2018, was especially memorable. Keith and Marion travelled a good deal, and we benefited when they shared their experiences. Indeed, the joint participation of Keith and Marion in our society over many years has enriched us all. We will miss Keith, and express our heartfelt condolences to Marion and all of Keith‘s family and friends.
Please read Keith’s Obituary to learn more of his many talents and the wonderful life he lived.
Every year we have done a hike to coincide with iNaturalist’s City Nature Challenge. It is a 4 day bio-blitz (Apr 24-27) where multiple cities across the world compete with each other to see who can identify and post the most species from their region to iNaturalist. Because of our climate with its late spring, Nova Scotia is at a bit of a disadvantage, but we have something special that should add to your count.
Peter Steiner is one of our directors and a trained field biologist. He will take us to the sand bar that is exposed at low tide between Macou Island in St. Margaret’s Bay and the mainland. A multitude of seaweeds will be revealed which he will help identify. There may even be some exotic ones swept in by the currents. We will also look at any local flora in the area and, if time permits later, we may head inland to one of the lakes to see whatever else is coming up.
You can download this map showing the Micou’s Island access point where we will meet. From exit 5 on the 103, take highway 213 to Upper Tantallon. Jog right at Highway 3 then left to head down Peggy’s Cove Rd. Go about 6km until you get to Glen Haven. Turn right at Indian Point Road and drive to the beach at the very end, where we will meet at Saturday at 10:00AM. Low tide is 10:36AM.
Please register at novascotiawildflora@gmail.com if you plan to come. Let us know if you need a ride or can offer a ride.
Marsh Lousewort – Pedicularis palustris
The Nova Scotia Wild Flora Society will have its Annual General Meeting at the downstairs auditorium of the Museum of Natural History, 1747 Summer St, Halifax on Monday April 27 at 7:30pm.
The meeting will be followed by a presentation from Sean Blaney of the Atlantic Canada Conservation Data Centre. It will highlight some plant puzzles that the AC CDC have not had a chance to investigate, where enthusiastic individuals could make significant contributions to botanical understanding in Nova Scotia. Sean will also highlight some of their plant work in NS from 2025, though vascular plant fieldwork in the province was fairly limited in 2025 due to forest closures.
We will simultaneously broadcast the meeting on Zoom, for those who cannot attend. Details will be emailed to members.
Apple moss – Bartramia pomiformis
From Sean Haughian, Senior Curator of Botany, Nova Scotia Museum:
Registration is now open for the first course in our Natural History Field School for 2026.
Students can register for “Introduction to Mosses and Allies” via our online system on Zeffy: https://www.zeffy.com/en-CA/
Course instruction will be lead by Sean Haughian (Curator of Botany at the NSM), with support from Research Associate Anne Mills. Between the two of us we have over 35 years of experience in bryology, so you’ll be in good hands!
This course provides an introduction and practical field experience in the diversity, identification, biogeography, and ecology of mosses and allies. Through daily field trips, students learn to recognize unique microhabitats and what types of mosses and allies they should expect to see. In the afternoons, students learn about moss anatomy and morphology and practice important foundational skills such as microscopy and the use of taxonomic keys.
The course is excellent preparation for post-secondary students who plan to conduct vegetation surveys as part of their field research, or to build desirable skills for employment with conservation or environmental consulting organizations. It is also good professional development for consulting or government biologists who have a role in monitoring or surveying for rare and at-risk species. The course may also appeal to dedicated amateur naturalists or citizen scientists who are seeking to dive more deeply into the world of tiny plants, or to improve the quality of their contributions to bio-blitzes, online platforms (like iNaturalist), or herbaria within their communities.
Please share this with those in your network whom you think might like to attend, and please reach out to me if you wish to take the course but are unable to for financial reasons. While we strive for cost recovery and any proceeds will support programming and research at the Museum, it is a priority that our courses remain accessible, particularly to Nova Scotians.
Important supplies can be purchased in our online shop here: https://www.zeffy.com/en-CA/
But please read the course syllabus before you buy anything – the Moss flora can be downloaded as a free PDF, and most of the other items can be borrowed if you’re not sure whether to dive more deeply into mosses yet. As always, email me with any questions you have.
Field trips will be mostly within 15-60 minutes of the Museum most days, and students and instructors will be invited to carpool for efficiency.
I’m working on getting a subpage for the Field School up on the Museum website, and will share that link as soon as it’s available. Once up, I will post information on additional courses to that page, including an introduction to lichens course slated for some time in the fall.
Best regards,
Sean R. Haughian, Ph.D. (He/Him)
Nova Scotia Museum (Index Herbariorum NSPM),
1747 Summer Street, Halifax (Kuowa’qamikt),
sean.haughian@novascotia.ca / 902-424-3564
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