HNPAT Meeting
Date/Time
4/29/2026
6:30 PM - 8:00 PM Central
6:30 PM - 8:00 PM Central
Event Description
Registration needed to attend in person and virtually.
Wildflowers of Texas and Pennsylvania
When I hit 75 I found the Texas summers were just too dang hot. So I decided to spend my summers at my brother's place in Erie, PA. I had grown up in the area and I was lucky enough to reconnect with some friends from my grade school days in Corry, PA. They all came to know me as that crazy old man from Texas who took endless pictures of wildflowers. One of those old friends, Tom Grice, told me that his great grandfather had lots of pictures of wildflowers and that he thought I might like to see them. I was a bit hesitant. If these old pictures of wild flowers were anything like the old out of focus, grainy black and white photos that my family had taken, I was not sure I wanted to see them. I had enough of my own. But I agreed to take a look.
Tom sent his wife Ginnie down the hill to Bonna’s house with an album full of these pictures. What I found when I opened the “album” shocked and amazed me. Now is a good time to give you just a bit of my TMN background. I was in the 2019 intern class of the Heartwood Chapter of Texas Master Naturalist. After completing the TMN training, one of my first volunteer opportunities was with Anita Tiller at the Mercer Herbarium. The job was using Google Earth to geolocate plant specimens in the Herbarium collection. We located the spot where the plant was taken from the description on the specimen and entered the information in the Mercer database.
Tom sent his wife Ginnie down the hill to Bonna’s house with an album full of these pictures. What I found when I opened the “album” shocked and amazed me. Now is a good time to give you just a bit of my TMN background. I was in the 2019 intern class of the Heartwood Chapter of Texas Master Naturalist. After completing the TMN training, one of my first volunteer opportunities was with Anita Tiller at the Mercer Herbarium. The job was using Google Earth to geolocate plant specimens in the Herbarium collection. We located the spot where the plant was taken from the description on the specimen and entered the information in the Mercer database.
Of course I made an appointment to view the entire collection. It turns out there were 10 books of local wildflowers, 2 books of Florida wildflowers and one scrapbook of various articles cut from garden magazines from the 20s, 30s and beyond. In addition, there was a collection of about a dozen reference books to help identify the flowers that were in the collection. Tom asked me what I thought and I told him, “Amazing.”
We talked about my work with the Mercer Herbarium and he asked me if Mercer might be interested in adding these books to their collection. I said yes. And he kindly gave me all of the books to take home to Houston with me. So when I returned home in the fall, I brought the collection with me. I met with Anita Tiller and Kari Hernandez at the Mercer Herbarium to show them what we had. We reviewed the specimens, discovered some interesting information in the notes and they put the books into the Herbarium. We are now working on indexing each book in the Mercer database. They will be taking high resolution images of the specimens so they can be used for further research.
We ask that you register for this meeting and for meetings going forward, particularly if you are coming in person. This wil help us greatly to keep track of attendance.
REGISTER HERE!
If you want to attend online, the Zoom registration link will immediately be sent to you when you register with the above registration link.
If you are coming in person, you can arrive as early as 6:30 PM to socialize and connect. There will be refreshments. And you are welcome to bring something.
You are welcome to wear a mask if that makes sense for you.
Please note that the Zoom session will be up after 6:30 PM for you to join whenever you want to and socialize with others. The meeting itself will not start until 7:00 PM.
The Houston Chapter of the Native Prairie Association of Texas (HNPAT) invites you to join their monthly meeting
Meeting Presentation:
Wildflowers of Texas and Pennsylvania
by Brian Beebe
When I hit 75 I found the Texas summers were just too dang hot. So I decided to spend my summers at my brother's place in Erie, PA. I had grown up in the area and I was lucky enough to reconnect with some friends from my grade school days in Corry, PA. They all came to know me as that crazy old man from Texas who took endless pictures of wildflowers. One of those old friends, Tom Grice, told me that his great grandfather had lots of pictures of wildflowers and that he thought I might like to see them. I was a bit hesitant. If these old pictures of wild flowers were anything like the old out of focus, grainy black and white photos that my family had taken, I was not sure I wanted to see them. I had enough of my own. But I agreed to take a look.Tom sent his wife Ginnie down the hill to Bonna’s house with an album full of these pictures. What I found when I opened the “album” shocked and amazed me. Now is a good time to give you just a bit of my TMN background. I was in the 2019 intern class of the Heartwood Chapter of Texas Master Naturalist. After completing the TMN training, one of my first volunteer opportunities was with Anita Tiller at the Mercer Herbarium. The job was using Google Earth to geolocate plant specimens in the Herbarium collection. We located the spot where the plant was taken from the description on the specimen and entered the information in the Mercer database.
Tom sent his wife Ginnie down the hill to Bonna’s house with an album full of these pictures. What I found when I opened the “album” shocked and amazed me. Now is a good time to give you just a bit of my TMN background. I was in the 2019 intern class of the Heartwood Chapter of Texas Master Naturalist. After completing the TMN training, one of my first volunteer opportunities was with Anita Tiller at the Mercer Herbarium. The job was using Google Earth to geolocate plant specimens in the Herbarium collection. We located the spot where the plant was taken from the description on the specimen and entered the information in the Mercer database.
Of course I made an appointment to view the entire collection. It turns out there were 10 books of local wildflowers, 2 books of Florida wildflowers and one scrapbook of various articles cut from garden magazines from the 20s, 30s and beyond. In addition, there was a collection of about a dozen reference books to help identify the flowers that were in the collection. Tom asked me what I thought and I told him, “Amazing.”
We talked about my work with the Mercer Herbarium and he asked me if Mercer might be interested in adding these books to their collection. I said yes. And he kindly gave me all of the books to take home to Houston with me. So when I returned home in the fall, I brought the collection with me. I met with Anita Tiller and Kari Hernandez at the Mercer Herbarium to show them what we had. We reviewed the specimens, discovered some interesting information in the notes and they put the books into the Herbarium. We are now working on indexing each book in the Mercer database. They will be taking high resolution images of the specimens so they can be used for further research.
We ask that you register for this meeting and for meetings going forward, particularly if you are coming in person. This wil help us greatly to keep track of attendance.
REGISTER HERE!
If you want to attend online, the Zoom registration link will immediately be sent to you when you register with the above registration link.
If you are coming in person, you can arrive as early as 6:30 PM to socialize and connect. There will be refreshments. And you are welcome to bring something.
You are welcome to wear a mask if that makes sense for you.
Please note that the Zoom session will be up after 6:30 PM for you to join whenever you want to and socialize with others. The meeting itself will not start until 7:00 PM.
Location
Outlook/vCalendar/Google
Click on the icon next to the date(s) to add to your calendar:
| 4/29/2026 |    |
Email Reminder