PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Berkshire Community College (OLLI at BCC) announced registration is open for events in June: "Ornamental Alternatives: Replacing Invasives with Beautiful Natives that Restore a Healthy Home Landscape," a class Chris Ferrero on June 2-3, and "Making Sense of Grape Scents," a lecture with Professor Cynthia Holland on June 10. 

 

"Ornamental Alternatives: Replacing Invasives with Beautiful Natives that Restore a Healthy Home Landscape" with Chris Ferrero will be held in person at BCC and online on June 2 and 3 from 10:00 - 11:30 a.m. Official invasive plant lists have unmasked the "bad actors" in home landscapes, but some of these culprits are beloved for their blooms, shade performance or fall foliage. This program highlights common trees, shrubs, vines and perennials from Massachusetts’ "prohibited" lists and offers native alternatives with superior flowers, fragrance, fruits & fall color, plus value to pollinators and birds.   

 

Chris Ferrero trained as a Cornell Master Gardener in New York, where she led demonstration garden teams, plant propagation workshops and alternatives-to-invasives work groups. She regularly consults on challenges like shade gardening, deer deterrence and pollinator gardening with native perennials and flowering shrubs, and she frequently speaks to garden clubs and master gardener symposiums. Formerly a corporate marketing director, she retired to Stockbridge, Mass. near Berkshire Botanical Garden, where she serves on the faculty and also sits on the Horticulture Advisory Committee. 

 

The cost of the class is $30 for OLLI at BCC members and $40 for non-members. To register, visit https://berkshireolli.org/event-6603477. 

 

"Making Sense of Grape Scents" with Professor Cynthia Holland, part of OLLI at BCC’s Distinguished Speaker Series, will be held online via Zoom on June 10 at 7 p.m. Plants produce a wide array of airborne molecules, or volatiles, that function in attracting pollinators, deterring herbivores and communicating with their surroundings. The volatile methyl anthranilate, which is responsible for the characteristic grape aroma, is emitted by grapes, citrus, maize and other flowering plants. This talk will highlight the Holland lab’s discovery of how methyl anthranilate is synthesized in grapes and will preview current experimental evidence on plant detection and response to volatiles.  

 

Cynthia Holland is an Assistant Professor in the Biology department at Williams College, where she teaches courses on molecular biology and biochemistry. Before starting at Williams in 2020, she pursued her PhD in Plant and Microbial Biosciences at Washington University in St. Louis, followed by a postdoctoral fellowship at the Boyce Thompson Institute in Ithaca, NY. Her research lab investigates the enzymes that plants use to produce molecules with commercial and pharmaceutical relevance. Recently, the Holland lab has identified the enzymes from grapes that are used to produce the volatile responsible for grape aroma. Current experiments focus on how plants may perceive airborne aromas and the implications for plant-to-plant communication. This project has been funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation through a five-year CAREER award.   

 

The cost of the lecture is $10 for OLLI at BCC members; $15 for non-members; free for students, staff and faculty from Berkshire Community College, MCLA and Williams; free for youth ages 17 and under; and free for those holding WIC, EBT/SNAP or ConnectorCare cards. To register, visit https://berkshireolli.org/event-6599451.