Inside The New York Botanical Garden
Posted in Photography on June 26 2011, by Plant Talk
Many early birds are waking up to find this lovely curtain of mist cause by the rain this week. The mist forms at night, when the air is cold, before evaporating with the morning sun.
Almost gives us a reason to wake up early on a Sunday morning… Almost.
(photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen)
Posted in Photography on June 25 2011, by Plant Talk
A sunny afternoon is a perfectly good time to go stargazing.
Nicotania alata ‘Grand Ol’ White’ (photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen)
Posted in Photography on June 24 2011, by Eddy Almonte
Here is Darwin, one of the resident-rabbits at the Ruth Rea Howell Family Garden, staying dry from the scattered showers this week.
Many commuters were not as lucky.
(photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen)
Posted in Science on June 23 2011, by Elizabeth McCarthy
| Elizabeth McCarthy is a post-doctoral researcher in the Genomics Program at NYBG. |
Recently, I had the opportunity to help introduce a group of bright junior high school girls to the science behind the beauty of flowers.
Back in March, I volunteered at the Explore Your Opportunities–The Sky’s the Limit! conference put on by the New York City, Westchester, and Manhattan branches of the American Association of University Women. This conference is open to 7th grade girls from New York City and Westchester schools and is designed to encourage girls to pursue science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) careers through fun, hands-on activities and by providing them with women role models from these fields. This conference has been run annually in the New York City area since 2004, first at Barnard College and now at the College of Mount St. Vincent, and is based on the Expanding Your Horizons in Science and Mathematics™ (EYH™) conferences, which first started in 1976 and now take place worldwide. During the conference, the girls hear a keynote address and then break up into smaller groups to do two hands-on workshops.
I led a workshop called ‘Flower Hour,’ which explored the science of a flower’s shape. I brought in five different types of flowers for the girls to examine. First, I asked the girls to look carefully at a yellow tulip, to describe what they were seeing in as much detail as possible. I gave them five minutes to write their observations down, and then they took turns sharing them with the group. I was impressed with the responses: One girl knew that the plant from which the flower came was an autotroph, an organism which makes its own food from inorganic compounds, and another observed that the flower had the same number of petals as it did stamens. After each girl shared her observations with the group, I drew a flower on the board and taught them the botanical names for floral parts.
In preparation for our next activity, I put five shapes on the board: an oval, a triangle, a star, a circle, and a square.
I asked the girls how they would group these shapes. Everyone agreed that the circle and oval belonged in one group and the triangle, square, and star belonged in another because circles and ovals have rounded edges and triangles, squares, and stars are pointy. Then I asked them, of the triangle, square, and star, which two were more closely related? There were some differing opinions, but they were all backed up by good reasoning. Some girls thought the triangle and square should go together because a square is made up of two triangles, whereas others thought that the triangle and star were more closely related because a star’s points look like triangles. From these series of groupings, we could create a family tree of these shapes, which shows how the shapes are related to each other.
Next, I gave each pair of girls five different flowers: a yellow lily, a pink lily, a yellow tulip, a red and yellow tulip, and a yellow freesia. I asked them to observe the similarities and differences among the flowers that would allow them to group them in a way that reflects how the flowers are related to each other, like we did with the shapes. I chose these particular flowers for several reasons. The duplicate lily and tulip flowers differed only in color, so were easily grouped as similar based on form and shape. I chose three different types of yellow flower to illustrate that some characteristics are more useful in determining relationships than others. In this case, three flowers share the same color, but have different shapes; therefore, grouping according to shape instead of color gives a more accurate estimation of the relationships among the flowers.
The girls noticed that the lilies and tulips all had six colorful tepals, the term given to the showy, petal-like structures of flowers whose sepals and petals look similar. The freesia, on the other hand, had green sepals and six petals, but the petals were fused to form a tube, which distinguished this flower from the others. The girls also observed that the carpels, the female flower parts, of the lilies and tulips looked similar, whereas that of the freesia was much more delicate and had a different shape. In light of these observations, the girls grouped the tulips and lilies together, while the freesia stood alone as distinct from the rest. Through this exercise, the girls not only learned to closely examine flowers and their specific parts, but also about studying evolution and how shared characteristics can be used to determine the relationships between species. The family tree the girls created was correct. Lilies and tulips are both members of the Liliaceae, the lily family, whereas freesias belong to the Iridaceae, the iris family.
Overall, it was an excellent day. I got to interact with very bright, engaged young women who were inquisitive and eager to learn. They will now look at flowers in a new way, appreciating not only their beauty, but also how scientific observation can be used to estimate the evolutionary relationships between species. I hope that my enthusiasm and love of science and plants promoted their interest in the sciences and encouraged them to view a scientific career–maybe even botany!–as a plausible option for their future. I am already looking forward to next year’s conference!
Posted in Photography on June 23 2011, by Eddy Almonte
There is a certain aerodynamic quality to this South African beauty. We wouldn’t be surprised if it suddenly took off.
Strelitzia Reginae (photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen)
Posted in Photography on June 22 2011, by Ann Rafalko
Just where does this walking onion think it’s going?
Allium x proliferum (photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen)
Posted in Gardening Tips on June 21 2011, by Sonia Uyterhoeven
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Sonia Uyterhoeven is Gardener for Public Education. |
Shade gardens call to mind stalwart plants such as hostas, ferns, and astilbes. While the Azalea Garden has an interesting array of exquisite hostas and intriguing ferns, it also includes less familiar shade-loving woodland inhabitants.
Many of these plants have interesting foliage that can add texture and color to a shade garden, and a number of them flower later in the season, providing color in the garden long after spring ephemerals and the majority of azaleas have finished their early season show. These woodlanders come in all shapes and sizes, from groundcovers to large perennials, and in a myriad of leaf colors–variegated, deeply veined, and color-tinged–and in a range of textures–fuzzy to matte and glossy.
Mukdenia rossii ‘Crimson Fans’ (Karasuba) is one of two unusual plants in the Azalea Garden with foliage that gets a beautiful red tinge as the season progresses. A relative of the coral bell (Heuchera), mukdenia has been available for a few years from specialty growers and is now becoming more widely available. The main attraction of mukdenia is its spectacular fan-shaped leaves that turn red around the edges in mid-summer and continue coloring into fall. Panicles of small white flowers that resemble foam flowers rise above the plant in early spring. Mukdenia grows 12-16 inches tall and fans out 12-24 inches, like coral bells, into a nice clump. In the garden it will perform best in moist, well-drained soil in part shade. The plant pairs nicely with late flowering red astilbe such as Astilbe x arendsii ‘August Light’. Mukdenia is native to Korea and China, where it grows on slopes and in rocky ravines at the side of streams.
Beesia deltophylla, a native of China, is another plant that gets red hues as the summer progresses. Beesia makes a wonderful evergreen groundcover in a woodland garden when planted in drifts. The foliage is spectacular: The leaves are large, glossy, and heart-shaped, with deep veins that give them a rippled, puckered appearance. Beesia looks like a mutant European ginger (Asarum europaeum) on steroids (in a good way). Small white flowers appear in summer on tall stems and are fairly insignificant compared with the foliage. Beesia will grow in many soil types but does best in moist, well-drained soil in part to full shade; it grows 10-15 inches tall and spreads up to 24 inches wide.
Syneilesis aconitifolia, the shredded umbrella plant, pokes its head out of the ground in spring wearing a fuzzy white coat that disappears as it matures. The leaves open like an umbrella to reveal large, heavily dissected, lacy leaves, looking like a mayapple (Podophyllum – See “Geographic Diversity In the Azalea Garden” for more on these plants) that has passed through a paper shredder. The shredded umbrella plant will thrive in part to full shade and can tolerate relatively dry soil. It reaches 2 feet in height. Its dissected foliage looks great when paired with a broad-leaved hosta that has smooth or puckered foliage.
In the Azalea Garden are some unusual members of the hydrangea family, all recognizable by their hydrangea-like foliage. Two are perennials that reach about 18 inches tall. Cardiandra alternifolia flowers in late summer with pretty pale-pink flowers reminiscent of a lace-cap hydrangea. Deinanthe caerulea ‘Blue Wonder’ flowers in midsummer with large, nodding lavender flowers. It has the demeanor of a hellebore. Both these woodlanders like part shade and moderate to moist soil. The sub-shrub Platycrater arguta reaches 2 feet tall and 2 feet wide. It flowers in midsummer with white blooms that resemble mock orange (Philadelphus) or deutzia (Deutzia).
Dealing with Deer
Aconitum krylovii, a monkshood from Russia, is a woodland plant that is deer-resistant–or at least has the promise of being so. It can be grown in full sun to full shade and matures to a height of 2 feet. Its deep-green, deeply veined, maple-like foliage is attractive even when the plant is not in bloom. White to pale-yellow flowers tinged with green open mid to late summer.
Both deer and rabbits tend to avoid members of the mint family and so may also pass up Leucosceptrum japonicum ‘Variegatum’ and Leucosceptrum stelipillum ‘Ogon’, Japanese shrub mints. The ‘Variegatum’ has brilliant chartreuse-and-green variegated foliage that brightens up any shade garden. ‘Ogon’ has yellow-green foliage that is equally as impressive. Both produce pale-mauve flowers late in the season, September to October, and reach 2-3 feet tall.
Rabdosia longituba, trumpet spurflower, also in the mint family, looks similar to many late season ornamental salvias. This relative has an open and airy vase-shaped habit. It grows to 3-4 feet tall with long sprays of tubular lavender flowers that appear from October into November. It tolerates dry soils, does best in part shade, and pairs nicely with Japanese anemone (Anemone japonica).
The Azalea Garden has many other interesting exotic woodland plants to explore. Creamy-yellow flowered Salvia koyame blooms from September to frost while the penstemon-like purple-pink blooms of the Chelonopsis yagiharana begin in August and last into October. For early season color try the elegant Asian twinleaf (Jeffersonia dubia), with its lavender cup-shaped flowers and lobed, red-edged foliage, or the tough, weed-smothering Trachystemon orientalis, with its borage-blue spring flowers and large heart-shaped leaves.
Posted in Photography on June 21 2011, by Ann Rafalko
Who says azalea gardens are only for spring? Not us. Our new Azalea Garden is beautiful 365-days a year. See for yourself!
Azalea Garden panorama (click to enlarge) – Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen
Posted in Behind the Scenes on June 20 2011, by Ann Rafalko
Happy Monday everyone! Ann Rafalko here, editor of Plant Talk and Director of Online Content at NYBG, to let you know that Plant Talk is going on vacation. Or, more precisely, I’m going on vacation, and I’m taking you with me!
I’ll be visiting a few of the world’s greatest gardens, and sharing my adventures with you, right here on Plant Talk. Additional posting will be light, so stay tuned for this special two-week adventure.
In just a few hours I will be hopping the pond to London where I’ll be visiting a few of my colleagues at Kew. I will also be taking a look at the IGPOTY exhibition (where at least one talented NYBG visitor’s photograph will be on display next year!), visiting the Chelsea Physic Garden, and checking out some of the best gardening shops the capital city has to offer. Then, on Friday, I’ll be heading to the City of Lights for a few days. I’m hoping to visit Monet’s garden at Giverny (more on why soon!), and to explore how the Parisians fit gardens into their historic urban landscape.
So stay tuned, and if you have any tips on garden-related places I should visit while in London and Paris, please feel free to leave a comment below. Bon voyage!
Posted in Photography on June 20 2011, by Ann Rafalko
No, not a sunflower. Just a little dahlia. She may be little, but she’s got a sunny disposition!
Dahlia ‘Mystic Illusion’ on the Seasonal Walk (photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen)