Even as workers were whacking down and pulling up the green shag carpet of Alumni Walk weeds, Susan Hayward joined Campus Construction Update at the site on Aug. 27 to identify the plants that had volunteered so eagerly this summer.

Hayward is an amateur botanist, a professional environmental educator and president of the Stanton Bird Club.

A few species by far dominated the crop: lamb’s quarters, field mustard and green amaranth. (Both green amaranth and lamb’s quarters are often called pigweed.)

All three can be eaten — although nitrates accumulate in amaranth leaves, so you’d want to limit yourself to a few young leaves in your salad. Or forget it altogether.

You’ve likely seen lamb’s quarters, an intrepid and prolific plant with pointy leaves that are green on top and whitish on the bottom. It was by far the most profuse weed on Alumni Walk.

“Commons could cook this up and feed the whole campus,” Hayward said, indicating the masses of lamb’s quarters. In fact, the plant was first brought to this country from Europe as a pot herb, and its flavor resembles that of spinach.

But, like pigweed, lamb’s quarters can concentrate undesirable substances, and moderation is recommended.

The seeds that become your hot dog topping come from black mustard, a relative of field mustard. But field mustard greens are nutritious and have a delicious bitter-spicy taste. (Another relative, the tasty broccoli rabe, turns up in grocery stores in the spring.)

Hayward pointed out other specimens whose value was more decorative than culinary. Lady’s thumb has long, pointed leaves sporting irregular purple blotches, which raises the question of what exactly the lady was doing with her thumbs.

The best-looking weed, though, was velvet-leaf, whose rounded, heart-shaped leaves really did feel like velvet. It’s also known as Indian mallow — it comes from India — and pie-maker, because the seed cases look like pie crusts.

“I keep a life list of plants I have ever seen,” Hayward said, “and velvet-leaf is a new one for me.”
A weed is a weed, of course, only if you don’t like it. Our tour turned up only a couple specimens that I was glad to tell goodbye. Everyone’s good friend, crabgrass, was one.
Another was one of the few native species we discovered: ragweed, whose plain green flowers are hard to see but, as many allergy sufferers know, easy to detect.

May 1 events:

• The conference begins at 1:30 p.m. with a presentation by William Barnard of Norwich University on Radio Telemetry Studies of the Gray Jay in Vermont.
• At 2:30 p.m., Bill Sheehan and Riche Hoppe of the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife will discuss, Design and Operation of the Maine M.A.P.S. Program.
• At 3 p.m., Falk Heuttmann of the University of New Brunswick will discuss, Winter Transect off Grand Manan Island.
• At 3:30 p.m., Sarah Bartos, a senior at Bates, will discuss, A Comparison of American Redstart Territory Size and Habitat Selection in Two Forest Types on Kent Island: Implications for the Conservation of the Species.
• At 4 p.m., Andrew P. Weik of the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife’s Endangered and Threatened Species Group will discuss Conservation of Grassland Birds in Maine: Field Survey Results from 1997 and Plans for 1998.
• At 4:30 p.m., Victoria Perry of the Cornish Elementary School will discuss, Birding with Children.
• During the 6 to 7:30 p.m. dinner in Commons dining hall, Bonnie Bochan, field ornithologist and botanist and co- director of the Vermont and Maine Breeding Bird Atlas projects, will discuss, Birds of Jatun Sacha: Following the Breeding Birds of North America to the Tropics of Ecuador.

May 2 events:

• At 6:30 a.m., The Stanton Bird Club will sponsor a campus bird walk. Participants will meet in front of the Olin Arts Center.
• At 8:15 a.m., coffee and muffins will be served, and registration will be held in the Olin Arts Center lobby.
• At 8:45 a.m., Thor Hanson of the University of Vermont will discuss, Foraging Behavior of Black-capped Chickadees, Red-breasted Nuthatches and Golden-crowned Kinglets in Heterospecific and Conspecific Flocks.
• At 9:15 a.m., Peter Vickery and W. Gregory Shriver of the Massachusetts Audubon Society’s Center for Biological Conservation will discuss, A Regional Survey for Breeding Grassland Birds in the Northeastern United States.
• At 9:45 a.m., Nat Wheelright and Jennifer J. Templeton of Bowdoin College will discuss, When Do Fledgling Sparrows Learn to Forage Independently?
• At 10:30 a.m., David I. King of the University of Massachusetts will discuss, Avian Reproductive Success in Clearcuts and Groupcuts in the White Mountains of New Hampshire.
• At 11 a.m., Kyle Apigian of Bowdoin College will discuss Foraging Efficiency and Preference in Black-capped Chickadees.
• At 11:30 a.m., Randall B. Boone and W.B. Krohn of the University of Maine, Orono, will discuss, Evidence of Transition Zones in Bird Distributions.
• From noon to 12:45 p.m. lunch will be served in Chase Hall.
• 12:45 to 1:30 p.m. Panel discussion on Bird Conservation programs in Maine: Alternative Funding Sources at Work will be held.
• At 1:30 p.m., Thomas Hodgmann of the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife’s Bird Group will discuss, Partners in Flight Program: Opportunities for Monitoring Bicknell’s Thrush and Other Mountaintop Forest Birds.
• At 2 p.m., Herb Wilson of Colby College will discuss, The Effect of Supplemental Feeding on Wintering Black-capped Chickadees.
• At 2:30 p.m. Mitschka Hartley of the University of Maine, Orono, will discuss, Effects of Selective Silviculture on Breeding Songbirds.
• At 3 p.m., Taryn L. Kruger of Bowdoin College will discuss, Nest Box Choice and Site Fidelity in Tree Swallows.
• At 3:30 p.m. Judy Kellogg Markowsky and William Halteman of the Maine Audubon Society and the University of Maine, Orono, will discuss, Roadkilled Birds, Foraging Substrate, Season and Road Type.
• At 4 p.m., David Evers and Peter Reaman of the Biodiversity Research Institute will discuss, Mercury Exposure in Maine Fish-eating Birds.

The conference will cover several ornithological topics, including endangered bird species; the effects of different forestry practices on bird habitat; and bird behavior. Speakers include Ed Mair, chairperson of the American Birders’ Exchange, who will discuss Birdwatching in Cyberspace, and Peter Stangel of the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, who will speak on the Voyage of the Wood Thrush: Winging Our Way to a New Century of Bird Conservation.

Further information on the conference is available from David Haines, professor of mathematics, at 207-786-6144.