Trail Talks: Plant ID 101: The 3 Mistakes Every Beginner Makes (Plus the Medicinal, Edible & Poisonous Plants You Need t
Category: Event Calendar
Date and Time
- Thursday, Aug 20, 2026 6:30pm - 7:30pm
Location
Faulkner Gallery
40 E Anapamu St
Details
Trail Talks: Plant ID 101: The 3 Mistakes Every Beginner Makes (Plus the Medicinal, Edible & Poisonous Plants You Need to Know)
Thursday, August 20, 6:30pm
Faulkner Gallery – Santa Barbara Public Library
40 East Anapamu St., Santa Barbara, CA
Before you can confidently identify what’s growing around you, you need to know where most beginners go wrong. In this talk, we’ll cover the three most common plant ID mistakes people make in the field, then dive into a tour of common edible, medicinal, and poisonous plants you should be able to recognize on your next walk.
About the Speaker
Emily Watson is the director of Artemesia Academy of Herbal Arts and Healing. She is a certified plant geek who loves connecting people with their own personal plant allies and their healer within. Born and raised in Santa Barbara, California, she has been studying holistic health since 2007, from farming apprenticeships in Hawaii and at the Herb Pharm, in Williams, Oregon, to pursuing a more formal education in Boulder, Colorado. Emily studied clinical herbalism & nutrition through a 2 year clinical program at the North American Institute of Medical Herbalism (now called the Colorado School of Clinical Herbalism). Under Paul Bergner, she learned the importance of teaching from a vitalist perspective, that every body has the ability to heal itself with supportive diet, herbs, and lifestyle practices.
Emily studied massage therapy & medical qigong at the Santa Barbara Body Therapy Institute, where she began her career as an educator. She has taught a variety of subjects there, from Anatomy, Physiology, Pathology, Nutrition, Business, Swedish & Lymphatic Massage. At the Santa Barbara Botanic Gardens, Emily has instructed numerous herb walk on native plants, and herbal workshops for the general public. Since 2014, Emily has run her own private practice, where she teaches transformative self-care through massage, nutrition & herbal remedies.
Through her journey of becoming an herbalist, she learned that there is very little support for health practitioners to learn how to run their businesses or truly take care of themselves as healers. Emily has taken numerous classes and business training workshops, including Women's Economic Ventures Self Employment Training. Her hope is to pass on the knowledge of sustainable living with practical entrepreneurial skills, so that herbalists can create thriving practices that fully support themselves, their land, and their community.
This free presentation is part of the Trail Talks series hosted by the Santa Barbara Public Library.
The next talk in the series is Thursday, September 17, Exploring Off-Trail on the California Channel Islands: Botanical Adventures with Annie Lamont-Ayers, Santa Barbara Botanic Garden Herbarium Collections Manager
