2011 was less than two weeks old when we announced our Caribbean Garden Photo Contest. After receiving hundreds of submissions and a meeting a whole new batch of flickr friends, your votes narrowed it down to twelve finalists in the categories “sense of place” and “macro.”
Well, the results are in. Your Flickr friends voted with their comments and here are your winners!
Macro Category Winner
By kathleenpimm
Sense Of Place Category Winner
By youngsol
The lucky winners will recieve a spot in an upcoming spring semester photography class offered by the Garden’s Adult Education Program.
Thanks to everyone who participated! What did you think of the contest? How can we make it better? What would you like to see? Let us know in the comments below!
The Andes mountain chain, which crosses South America from north to south, is the longest in the world. The Andean forests of the northern range (Tropical Andes hotspot) are home to a level of plant diversity that is without match anywhere else in the world; they are also subject to high rates of deforestation, thus these forests are considered a top priority for conservation. Unfortunately, Andean forests remain insufficiently studied and protected. This lack of baseline information is often times the first impediment to effective conservation: It is impossible to efficiently protect what we do not know or understand.
Clean and fresh travelers. First day, at La Encarnación. Top row: Alirio Montoya, Hector Velásquez, Javier Serna, Arley Duque, María Fernanda González, Camila González, Giovanny Giraldo, Fredy Gómez. Lower row: Felix Escobar, Julio Betancur, Paola Pedraza-Peñalosa.
After 14 days collecting plants in the field, we returned to Bogotá, Colombia’s capital with nearly 700 plant collections, and more than 10,000 photographs. Behind us we left Las Orquídeas National Park‘s 32 thousand hectares of rare and endangered tropical and montane forests, which make it part of one of the most biologically rich ecosystems of the world: the Andean and Chocó forests. We left behind more than 2,000 species of vascular plants, some of them still unknown to the science and probably not found anywhere else.
In honor of opening week at The Orchid Show: On Broadway, we are using “Morning Eye Candy” as an opportunity to introduce you to the cast of characters that play both the starring roles and the bit parts in the Garden‘s ode to all things orchid and Broadway.
(photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen)
Previously Featured Cast Members of The Orchid Show: On Broadway:
In honor of opening weekend at The Orchid Show: On Broadway, we are dedicating this week’s “Morning Eye Candy” posts to the cast of characters that play both the starring roles and the bit parts in the Garden‘s ode to all things orchid and Broadway.
(photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen)
Previously Featured Cast Members of The Orchid Show: On Broadway:
In honor of opening day of The Orchid Show: On Broadway, we are dedicating this week’s “Morning Eye Candy” posts to the cast of characters that play both the starring roles and the bit parts in the Garden‘s ode to all things orchid and Broadway.
(photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen)
Previously Featured Cast Members of The Orchid Show: On Broadway:
Ed. Note: Much as when the Garden photographer tells you something is special, when one of the Garden’s serious plant guys shoots you an email, you sit up and listen. This happened recently when I got an email from Jon Peter, Plants Records Manager about a little purple flower.
The Botanical Garden’s living collections is among the greatest in the world and contains more than 1 million plants. Jon Peter, Plant Records Manager, periodically shines the spotlight on a particular species that can be found within our 250 acres.
This pretty flower is of Centratherum punctatum. The name Centratherum comes from the Greek kentron meaning spur and anthos meaning flower; referring to the flower having a spur-like base. The specific epithet punctatum means spotted. It goes by many common names including larkdaisy, Brazilian button flower, pineapple thistle, porcupine flower, Brazilian bachelor’s button and Manaos beauty.
In honor of The Orchid Show: On Broadway‘s public preview (today is the Member’s Preview), we decided to dedicate this week’s “Morning Eye Candy” posts to the cast of characters that will play both starring roles and bit parts in the Garden‘s ode to all things orchid and Broadway.
(photo by Mark Pfeffer)
Previously Featured Cast Members of The Orchid Show: On Broadway:
The Conservatory (photo by Garden photographer Ivo M. Vermeulen)
Six weeks, dozens of new community members, and thousands of photos later, we’re down to 12 finalists in the first ever Caribbean Garden Photo Contest! We had a blast looking at all of your gorgeous shots, and I know that our photo guru Rich Pomerantz had a really great time meeting and working with many of you in the Conservatory. But like all good things, the contest had to come to an end (even though we’re already looking forward to next year!).
And there’s still time to vote in the contest to help us determine two overall winners in the Sense of Place and Macro categories! All you need is a free Flickr, Yahoo or Google account, and then you can leave a comment on your favorite photographs. The winner in each category will be determined based upon a final tally of comments and favorites gathered from today until Monday, March 7 at noon. So get clicking and support your favorite photographer!
Scott A. Mori, Ph.D., Nathaniel Lord Britton Curator of Botany, has been studying New World rain forests for The New York Botanical Garden for over 35 years. He has witnessed an unrelenting reduction in their extent and, as a result, is concerned about their survival.
Dr. John Pipoly
Botanists at The New York Botanical Garden discover, classify, and study the evolutionary relationships of plants and fungi, their ecological interactions, and how they are used by mankind. Their tool kit for identifying and studying plants includes examining a plant’s external appearance, internal appearance, and it’s genetic makeup (done through the aid of DNA sequencing). The knowledge our students gain in their studies gives them the ability to recognize plants and fungi even when only fragments of them are available. As a result, Garden scientists are periodically called upon by authorities to identify poisonous mushrooms, herbal medicines (whether whole, or ground into powders), hallucinogenic and other plant derived drugs, and even plants associated with crimes. The latter is called forensic botany.
Last November, a Ft. Lauderdale resident spotted a container floating in a canal outside of his house. When he went to see what was inside, he was astonished to find a pair of arms and legs inside. The torso was subsequently discovered by fishermen in a nearby canal, and a severed head was discovered by employees of a hardware store in another locality. This dismembered corpse was identified by its fingerprints as Warren Danzig, whose residence was listed as the home of Jamie Saffran. When officers visited his home, they were told that Danzig was in the Dominican Republic and only used Saffrran’s home as a place to get mail.
Because plant parts, especially leaves, were mixed in with the body parts the police contacted Dr. John Pipoly, a graduate of The New York Botanical Garden/City University of New York joint Ph.D. program in 1986. Pipoly, who is an urban horticulture extension agent for Broward County, was called to help identify the plant remnants mixed in with the body parts. Pipoly is a trained plant taxonomist (a scientist who, among other things, classifies and identifies plants) so the task of figuring out the name of a plant from just its parts did not seem the impossible task that it would seem to most people. Immediately, he recognized that the leaves represented two different cultivated plants, which he suspected were the umbrella tree, Schefflera actinophylla and the Chinese privet, Ligustrum sinense. He then used the plant collections in the herbarium of the Fairchild Tropical Botanical Garden in Coral Gables to confirm his identifications. Although the umbrella tree was common in the area, Pipoly had never seen the Chinese Privet in Broward County.
Finding parts of the umbrella tree and the rare Chinese privet intermixed with the body parts as well as on the property of Jamie Saffran confirmed the suspicion of the authorities that Saffran was likely the murderer. Other evidence was the discovery of the same kind of rope found with the body and on his property as well as the use of Danzig’s credit card by Saffran to pay for part of his daughter’s education. Saffran was recently denied bond in the case.
Pipoly’s position involves many tasks, such as heading the Florida Master Gardener Program, monitoring climate change, identifying what pests attack plants, and determining what native plants are best for growing as ornamentals, but it’s unlikely he ever imagined that one day he would help solve a murder!
In case you’ve missed some of the previous installments, NYBG photography instructorRich Pomerantz has a series of how-to videos specifically designed for garden photographers. In this episode, Rich talks about the age-old technique known as the “Rule of Thirds”.
Rich has an upcoming class that will be based out of our Midtown Education Center but will take photo trips to the High Line Park. Be sure to sign up while spots are still available. The flora should be amazing in May!
Do you have a burning question garden photography question that we can pose to Rich? Maybe your question will turn into the next tutorial! You can leave your suggestions in the comments.
