Aggie’s Wildflower Walk 2021

For some twenty years now TFN member and voice of the Humber River, Madeleine McDowell, has led fellow members on her annual “Aggie’s Wildflower Walk”, a two hour journey through the world of Agnes Dunbar Moodie Fitzgibbon, illustrator of Canadian Wildflowers. Published in 1868, Canadian Wildflowers is considered one of the most important early botanical works published in this country and all of Aggie’s specimens were from the Baby Point and the Humber Valley area. Many of the plants she featured continue to thrive at the nearby Magwood Sanctuary and in the specimen garden outside Lambton House (4066 Old Dundas St.) which TFN helped make possible back in 2015 (see Toronto Field Naturalist #615, pg. 16).

Madeleine has typically hosted Aggie’s Wildflower Walk on Mother’s Day, in memory of her own mother. Current public health restrictions prevent her from leading this walk today, but she wanted to share its essence with the slideshow below.

22 slides, held for 15 seconds each. No audio.

Toronto Field Naturalists wishes to acknowledge this Land through which we walk. For thousands of years, the Land has been shared by the Wendat, the Haudenosaunee, and the Anishinaabe. Toronto is situated on the Land within the Toronto Purchase, Treaty 13, the traditional and treaty Lands of the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation. This territory is also part of the Dish with One Spoon Wampum, a covenant agreement between Anishinaabeg, Haudenosaunee, Wendat peoples and allied nations to peaceably share the land and all its resources. Today, the Land is home to peoples of numerous nations. We are all grateful to have the opportunity to continue to care for and share the beauty of this Land.