Nature Classes in NYC, New York

One of summer’s delights is enjoying visits from the ruby-throated hummingbird. Learn about these special guests and how to attract them to gardens. Migration, plant selection, eco-friendly gardening practices, nesting, supplemental feeding, and citizen science will be discussed. Take a home a plant hummingbirds love.

This blended class meets online for some sessions and on NYBG grounds for others. Registered students will receive login instructions and a syllabus with specifics. Explore the basic principles that influence the ecological relationships of the forest ecosystem. Using the Garden grounds as a site for observation and field study, learn to understand...

This class will take place online. Registered students will receive login instructions. Trees may appear to be strong and silent, but they can "talk"—to one another, to other plants, and to animals and insects. Discover how trees communicate via chemical signals in the air (to warn each other of insect attacks), as well as through complex fungal...

Study the crucial role birds, insects, and bats play in local ecosystems. Using gorgeous photographs taken over years of field study, expert naturalist Alan Wells discusses the many different types of pollination, as well as how the roles played by a plant's flower structure, nectar production, and fragrance.

Take a virtual stroll through the Arboretum's gardens with horticulturist Sharon Yiesla, and load up on practical tips and inspiration for this growing season. As you enjoy the perennial garden beds from the comfort of your home, you’ll learn about plant placement, dividing, transplanting, watering, fertilizing, mulching and more. Get answers to...

This class will take place online. Registered students will receive login instructions. Learn how to identify this unique order of insects as they take to the skies in early summer. Study their biology, behavior, habitat associations, and conservation efforts currently underway.

This class will take place online. Registered students will receive login instructions. Did you know that Blue Jays can mimic the cry of a Red-tailed Hawk? Train your ear to find them as well as other talented mimics, comical improvisers, brilliant songsters, and heart-throb spring soloists. The vocalizations of our native birds are many and vary...

Saturday, March 6 The 2021 foraging season, the 39th, opens with Central Park, a perennial popular venue for foragers, beginning at 11:45 AM, Saturday, March 6, just inside the park at West 72nd St. This tour will be co-led by "Wildman," and his daughter, Violet Brill, who will be leading some solo tours throughout the Greater NY area again as well....

We have been on lock down, separated from loved ones and nature. Let's return to community in nature with an evening forest therapy walk! Enjoy the many invitations that will connect us with summer's long daylight hours. Meeting location at the Loeb Boathouse in Central Park (East Drive parallel to about 75th Street) Note: Wear comfortable, weather-appropriate...

Forest Park is one of the best places for foragers in mid-spring. Get lost in this vast park, and you'll have plenty to eat (that is, if you can distinguish the gourmet plants from the deadly ones.) It boasts a large, mature, secondary growth forest, trail edges, thickets, and cultivated areas—all overflowing with wild plants. Burdock,...

Saturday, March 6 The 2021 foraging season, the 39th, opens with Central Park, a perennial popular venue for foragers, beginning at 11:45 AM, Saturday, March 6, just inside the park at West 72nd St. This tour will be co-led by "Wildman," and his daughter, Violet Brill, who will be leading some solo tours throughout the Greater NY area again as well....

A great abundance of edible and medicinal wild plants and mushrooms makes this park a great place for edible and medicinal plants and mushrooms in late summer. Burdock, an expensive detoxifying herb sold in health food stores, abounds in cultivated areas throughout the park. You can also use this invasive species as a superb root vegetable, or even...

The seashore is always a special place for edible wild plants. Springtime is no exception, and Sunken Meadow Park exemplifies the best of the habitat. In addition to the beach habitat and adjacent thickets, it's got cultivated areas, wetlands, and woodland trails. There will also be edible seaweeds in The Sound. Irish moss, which is used as a commercial...

This is one of the best places in the world for early spring foraging, with a wide selection of wild herbs, greens, roots, and even some cold-weather mushrooms. Habitats include miles of mature forest, as well as the trail edges, and the disturbed, overgrown, and cultivated habitats that provide homes for all sorts of diverse species. Burdock, a...

This class will take place online. Registered students will receive login instructions. This intro class teaches you basic botanical illustration techniques to help you make realistic drawings of branches, stems, leaves, and flowers using graphite and colored pencil. Recommended Textbooks: Botanical Art Techniques, American Society of Botanical Artists...