Dr. David Fairchild. . .here I come!

Have I mentioned I was an English major in college? I read a lot of Shakespeare and can still parse a sentence, but I avoided science and math classes like the plague. That's what made my day on Saturday such an anomaly.

Fairchild Tropical Botanic Gardens insists that all volunteers take a one time intensive botany class. Saturday's began at 9:30am and lasted until 4pm, with a half hour off for a quick lunch. I went with a slight chip on my shoulder. I can barely pronounce photosynthesis, much less care how it occurs. So far, no one on any of my tram tours has asked me to explain the difference between dicotlyledons and monocotyledons, so why waste a good Saturday, I wondered.

I stand corrected. It was a fascinating experience. I partnered up with an old friend named Diane, and together we were unstoppable on the Scavenger Hunt through the Arid Garden and the Rain Forest, identifying and classifying the plants pictured on sheets of colored photos everyone received. Favorite answer from one of our classmates to the question, "This plant can reproduce asexually because it is both male and female. Why would that be beneficial?" Her response:"It could answer its own ad on Match.com."

You get the picture that the class was not all serious stuff. However, we did learn an incredible amount about plants and how they reproduce. We created slides from a slice of onion that we then viewed under a microscope to help us understand cell structure. And we carefully dissected flowers to identify their parts with little hand-held magnifying glasses. My partner Diane became so obsessed with the ovaries of a lilly she was dissecting, I had to literally drag her away to the next project. (See accompanying photo of Diane dissecting.)

I'm not quite qualified to call myself a botanist from one day in the classroom, but I find I still really enjoy learning. Rather than a wasted day, it gave me a whole new view of this fabulous botanical garden that has added a new dimension to my life. (Thank you, Benard, for introducing me to this place.)

OK, so I've become a volunteer junkie. I admit it. But how many of you out there know the difference between a dicot and a monocot plant cell? Now, if someone on my tram tour will just ask me. . . .