To help students relax and enjoy nature, the UF Ethnoecology Society hosted a nature walk around Lake Alice.
On Monday at 5 p.m., students met at the Ethnoecology Garden located behind the bat houses on Museum Road.
Melody Mullally, the club’s president and a UF anthropology senior, organized the walk to help students familiarize themselves with nature on campus. This was the first walk the society has hosted.
“I want to help students get a closer relationship with the natural world around us,” the 23-year-old said.
Three students attended the event, but Mullally is hoping for a higher turnout for their upcoming walk in October.
The walk was led by Michael Stevens, who goes by “Mycol,” which is short for mycology, the study of mushrooms. Stevens has been studying the field since 1992 and graduated from UF with a bachelor’s degree in environmental engineering and a master’s degree in ecological engineering.
“As a child experiencing middle child syndrome, as I reflect on it, in the suburbs of Ohio I got to play in the woods,” Stevens said. “I kind of innately learned it by doing that.”
As they walked through the garden, Stevens pulled leaves off of trees and popped them into his mouth. He showed students the various plants in the garden that can be found across campus, specifically the edible ones like Cuban oregano, pindo palm and persimmon.
“We’re having another walk at the end of October that’s costume themed to draw attention to the club and what we’re doing,” Mullally said.
Zack Zeller, a UF sustainability studies and soil and water science sophomore, said going to the event helped him learn more about UF’s plants.
“There were a lot of edible things that I walk past everyday on campus and I would have no idea that Native Americans used to eat these plants that we take for granted today,” the 19-year-old said.
