Larry Zettler will be giving us a talk entitled: Saving Orchids: Their Future in a Warming World. Dr. Lawrence (Larry) W. Zettler was raised in north-central Florida, near Gainesville. After earning his B.S. degree from the University of Florida (1987), Larry earned his Ph.D. in Plant Physiology from Clemson University in 1994 where he developed a protocol for propagating Platanthera integrilabia from seed using a fungus symbiotic germination) that he later co-described as a new species. In 1996, he established Illinois College’s Orchid Recovery Program that enlists the help of undergraduate college students to conserve rare species throughout the United States and around the world. The first species he studied at Illinois College was the U.S. Federally threatened Eastern Prairie Fringed Orchid, Platanthera leucophaea. Since that time, 100+ undergraduate students have studied other rare orchids in the Midwest, as well as Florida, Hawaii, the Caribbean, and South America. During 2012-2017, he collaborated with researchers from the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew in England to conserve rare orchids of Madagascar. He is currently collaborating with researchers at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center studying orchids in the Republic of Palau (W Pacific). He has authored/co-authored 60 peer-reviewed scientific publications, three book chapters, and illustrated two books in colour including Dragonflies of North America (Scientific Publishers, 2000) depicting 167 species. He is currently completing a book he is co-authoring with Phil Seaton (Saving Orchids: Their Future in a Warming World) which is expected to be published in 2023. His research projects involving orchids have been publicised regionally, nationally and internationally by the news media (e.g., BBC-TV, National Public Radio, Huffington Post, Radio Havana Cuba, Honolulu Star Advertiser, CBS Miami, National Geographic). He and his wife, Dr. Elizabeth Rellinger Zettler, and their daughter, Audrey, enjoy quiet home life with their menagerie of pets and plants. Find more information about Larry's amazing work with orchids, here: https://www.ic.edu/biology/orchidrecovery