Senior+Center+Plant+Exchange

Senior Center Plant exchange: At the bond park senior center, I helped direct people towards the center, as well as help them carry plants back and forth from their car. There were a lot of different plants that people brought, such as a peace lily, succulents, monkey's paw, night blooming cereus, small bushes, and more. They were divided up into full sun and shadow. A lot of the seniors talked about the characteristics of the plants they brought, such as the night blooming cereus was a rare plant that only blooms once in a year at night. They also talked about the ways the plants could be cared for (such as houseplants can handle the outdoors, just not during winter). The seniors got a few turns taking new plants, each ending up with 5-6 plants.

This plant exchange is relevant to environmental science by encouraging people to take care of the environment by taking care of plants as well as protecting plant diversity (versus throwing out unwanted plants or inadequately taking care of them; provides a gene pool for future evolutionary processes) (682-3). Through this event, many people also learned about different plant species and their characteristics, such as being able to use them as food (some) and aesthetics (682).