Colorado's Lost Apples: Rediscovering our Forgotten
Legacy
Katharine Suding, Ph.D., University of Colorado,
Boulder
Join us to learn about the Boulder Apple Tree Project, which strives to map, identify and preserve the amazing biological and historical heritage of apples in Colorado. In the mid-1800s, there were thousands of unique varieties of apples in the United States, some of the most astounding diversity ever developed in a food crop. Later, the apple industry narrowed their promotion to only a handful of varieties and the rest were forgotten. These forgotten varieties became commercially extinct but not biologically extinct; some trees remained near old homesteads and in abandoned orchards. This story played out in many places such as Colorado, where remnants of old orchards dot the landscape. Here, these abandoned trees represent cultivars that have resisted disease and the environmental stress of a dry climate as well as the genetic diversity absent from commercial apple production.
Professor Katharine Suding is a plant community ecologist, professor of environmental biology and a fellow of the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research at University of Colorado Boulder. She works at the interface of ecosystem, landscape and population biology. Her goal is to apply cutting-edge “usable” science to the challenges of restoration, species invasion and environmental change.
Professor Katharine Suding is a plant community ecologist, professor of environmental biology and a fellow of the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research at University of Colorado Boulder. She works at the interface of ecosystem, landscape and population biology. Her goal is to apply cutting-edge “usable” science to the challenges of restoration, species invasion and environmental change.
Wednesday, February 20
6:30 p.m.
Gates Hall
Reserve your seat