Invasive Botanicals: Artwork Offers An Education

In Beautiful, Hardy, Destructive Plants

WILTON — A special showing of 19 original works by 13 members of the Guild of Natural Science Illustrators is on view at Weir Farm National Historic Site Visitor Center through May 18.

The show is co-sponsored by Weir Farm Trust, National Park Service, and Norwalk River Watershed Association. It features meticulous scientific illustrations of invasive plants and is entitled “Invasive Botanicals: Beauty and Beast.”

Beautiful, hardy, adaptable, prolific – and mostly predator-free – non-native invasive plants are a national problem and the second greatest threat to biological diversity, after habitat destruction through development.

Invasives crowd out native plants that frequently provide better nutrition for wildlife. They create monocultures and, thereby, decrease diversity. The show was devised to educate the public about the need to control invasives and how to identify them. The show was curated by exhibiting artists Helene Verglas of Redding and Kathie Miranda of Shelton, both of whom are members of the Guild’s Greater New York chapter.

Other contributing artists are Dick Rauh and Kate Rivera, both of Norwalk, and New York State artists Judy Aronow of Scarsdale, Cori Lapin-Cohen of Katonah, Monika de Vries-Gohlke of Brooklyn, Ruth Snell MacDonald of Pleasantville, Margaret Robinson of Croton-on-Hudson, Leah Rohrbaugh of New York City, Jessie Salmon of Poughkeepsie, Brenda Shanagher of Cornwall-on-Hudson, plus Linda Vinson of Charleston, S.C.

The invasive plants that have been illustrated include Asiatic Bittersweet, Autumn Olive, Phragmites, Garlic Mustard, Giant Hogweed, Glossy Buckthorn, Hydrilla, Japanese Barberry, Japanese Honeysuckle, Japanese Knotweed, Mile-a-minute Vine, Multiflora Rose, Norway Maple, Porcelain Berry, Purple Loosestrife, Tree-of-heaven, Wineberry, Winged Euonymus, and Iris pseudacorus.

The Guild of Natural Science Illustrators is a non-profit organization of illustrators with a goal to encourage and maintain high standards of competence through education. Members consist of those earning their living, in part or in whole, by the rendering of scientific illustrations.

The Weir Farm National Historic Site straddles the Ridgefield/Wilton line, with its Visitor’s Center located as 735 Nod Hill Road in Wilton within the Norwalk River Watershed. It is the only site in the nation dedicated to an American painter – J. Alden Weir – and possesses Weir’s house, studios, and other outbuildings belonging to the Impressionist painter. The grounds feature trails that are well maintained by the National Park Service and are, among other attributes, free of invasive plants. The Weir Farm Trust is a nonprofit organization that supplies programming and purchases art to support the site and mission of Weir Farm.

Norwalk River Watershed Association is a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the water quality and quality of life in the region. Key to its mission is education and action in the form of research, publications, and stewardship projects. Increasing awareness of invasive plants, their control, and substitution is just one of its major concentrations.

For information about Weir Farm, its visitor hours, and driving directions call 203-834-1896 or visit www.nps.gov/wefa. For information about the Norwalk River Watershed Association and its projects and programs, call 203-849-8210 or visit www.NorwalkRiver.org.