Great Garden Series

Native Trees and Shrubs of Colorado

With Jennifer Bousselot, Associate Professor of Horticulture, Colorado State University

Jack Carter was a well-known Colorado botanist and author of three titles including two editions of Trees and Shrubs of Colorado. Jack spent his career celebrating Colorado native plants and aiming to address the epidemic of 'plant blindness' that plagues our society. It was Jack's dream to turn this dichotomous key into an approachable field guide. Before his death, he transferred his materials to his mentee, Jen, who has made this dream come true with the release of the third edition of Trees and Shrubs of Colorado published by the Colorado Native Plant Society. This edition comes out exactly 20 years after Jack's last edition of this title. Learn about the depth and breadth of native woody plant species that exist in Colorado. Jen will discuss the scope of the third edition updates including nomenclature and authority changes, new line drawings, images that accompany the plant descriptions, and species distribution maps.

Jennifer Bousselot, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor in the Department of Horticulture and Landscape Architecture at Colorado State University. Jen and her team study native plants, green roof plant-pollinator interactions, green roof system stormwater capture, rooftop agriculture, and the integration of solar panels on green roofs, also known as rooftop agrivoltaics. Jen is the Editor of the North American academic green roof journal, the Journal of Living Architecture. She is on the Board of Plant Select® and the former Research Chair on the Board of Directors for Green Roofs for Healthy Cities. Jen is an accredited Green Roof Professional and co-coordinates the Colorado Regional Center for Excellence in Living Architecture, both designated by the Green Infrastructure Foundation. Jen has co-authored over 30 peer reviewed publications since 2010 with most related to green roofs, local foods, and/or native plants. She is co-author of four books: she updated the 3rd edition of Common Southwestern Native Plants (2018, reprints in 2022 and 2026), she contributed to two chapters in the book Ecoregional Green Roofs (2021), she updated the 3rd edition of Trees and Shrubs of New Mexico (2021), and she is updating the 3rd edition of Trees and Shrubs of Colorado (expected 2026).

Great Garden events happen every fourth Wednesday of the month, April-September, presented by the Durango Botanic Gardens, CSU Extension Office, & Durango Public Library. For more details visit www.durangobotanicgardens.org/events.

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