Sonoma County Master Gardeners hosted a public lecture featuring Dr. Matt Ritter who spoke about California’s Native Plants and Urban Forests.
California is one of the world’s biodiversity hotspots with over 6,000 native plants, many of which are found nowhere else. Matt’s engaging, and entertaining talk will be a botanical tour of California, with natural and cultural history stories of our most iconic plants. Join him for a photographic exposé of the state’s interesting native flora, the trees we decided to plant in our cities, and how we can improve our planting choices.
Matt grew up in rural Mendocino County, California. After earning a bachelor’s degree in microbiology from U.C. Santa Barbara, he attended U.C. San Diego for a Ph.D. in plant biology. He’s a botany professor in the Biological Sciences Department at Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo, California.
Matt is the author of several books, including a guide to California’s flora, “California Plants: A guide to our Iconic Flora”. He also wrote the best-selling guide to California’s urban forest, “A Californian’s Guide to the Trees among Us” (Heyday, 2011). His writing has appeared in several magazines, including Pacific Horticulture. He won the Cal Poly’s Distinguished Teaching Award, the International Society of Arboriculture Award for Excellence in Education, the National Outdoor Book Award for his children’s book “Something Wonderful”, and the Indie Book Award for his climate change novel “Rainwalkers”.
Matt is the California Coordinator of the American Forests Big Tree Registry and studies California’s native plants, and trees in the urban forest. He’s an avid woodworker, mason, and gardener.
Thank you to our lecture sponsors: Emerisa Gardens – Retail Nursery, Grab N’ Grow Soil Products, and Sequoia Landscape Materials.