After completing the training program, each new docent or gardener receives a name tag, adorned with a leaf of Ginkgo biloba, the Asian tree that shades The Nest--the place where public tours typically begin.
MEMBG docents also enjoy special field trips, including tours of a UC nature preserve in the Santa Monica Mountains, UCLA's Ocean Discovery Center at the Santa Monica Pier, and the UCLA Hannah Carter Japanese Garden in Bel Air. Our current group visited the old Getty Museum in Malibu and opening day at the new Getty Museum in neighboring Brentwood, as well.
Another reward of graduating from docent training is the opportunity to attend Professor Gibson's undergraduate course BIO 10, "Plants and Civilization." The largest college course on the subject in the world, the class teaches docents about how plants have been used by humans. It will be offered again beginning January 13, meeting on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 3:30 to 4:45 p.m. in Moore Hall, Room 100.
In fact, ever since graduation from docent training, our docents have been seizing opportunities to continue learning about plants. The docents' designated study area within the Herbarium is known as Docent Central. And, as part of a program we lovingly call Docentaceae, each docent has been assigned "homework" on a particular plant family represented in the living collection. Next time you talk with a docent, be sure to ask about his or her special plants!
In the next few months, MEMBG docents will be helping to record a "flowering calendar"--to be posted in subsequent newsletters and on our Web site-that will advertise when particular species will be in flower. Grab your cameras!