… This is the story of a road trip I took with some corpse flowers, the rock stars of the plant world. … at bloom time—a hybrid of week-old gym socks and a rotting mouse that you just can’t seem to find in your kitchen. The Garden began collecting titan arums, or corpse flowers, in 2003. There’s a worldwide conservation effort to preserve the species, as it is considered “vulnerable”—unless the circumstances threatening …
Type: Blog
… in your garden? How about marigolds, coleus, a gingko, or a panicle hydrangea? If so, this is a testimony to the many plant explorers who, in the past four centuries, traveled far and wide, for years at … chapter in the annals of science. American and foreign botanists often risked their lives to serve the sciences and arts that depended on plants. Their work took them into the wilderness, …
Type: Blog
… it attracts butterflies. Archived Copy: This content was captured before February 2022, and is no longer being updated. …
Type: Garden Guide Plant
… ideal growing conditions. Archived Copy: This content was captured before February 2022, and is no longer being updated. …
Type: Garden Guide Plant
… protected garden locations. Archived Copy: This content was captured before February 2022, and is no longer being updated. …
Type: Garden Guide Plant
… against rabbits and deer. Archived Copy: This content was captured before February 2022, and is no longer being updated. …
Type: Garden Guide Plant
… I’ve stated before, we in the education department of the Chicago Botanic Garden are committed to helping parents and teachers find great projects that teach students how plants sustain and … or an entire class. Let’s begin by thinking about tomato seeds. Cut open a tomato and try to pick out a single seed. Go ahead and try it, I’ll wait. These tomato seeds glisten and mock me … a gelatinous substance that makes them slippery and difficult to handle. So the first question is, what purpose does the slimy coating serve? This is not the kind of blog post where I give …
Type: Blog
… Botanic Garden? Find out with our mystery photo challenge! Guess these objects and where to find them with our close-up snapshots. Click on the picture to reveal the answer to each clue below. Clue: Right past here, you’ll find six unique rooms … too. × It’s the English Walled Garden gate! The Helen and Richard Thomas English Walled Garden is a favorite among visitors and was originally created by the noted British landscape architect, …
Type: Blog
… which monarchs lay their eggs, and its caterpillars, also called larvae, eat milkweed leaves to grow. But these plants have other interesting characteristics, including blooms that are amazingly complex. Milkweeds are found mostly in open prairies and savannas and are known to most by their fruits, which are pod-like structures (follicles) that split open to release … milkweed (A. verticillata) , which often can be found at the very edge of highways where there is little competition or dry pastures and degraded prairies, and swamp milkweed (A. incarnata) , …
Type: Blog
… Competition is heating up in the western United States. Invasive and native plants are racing to claim … Alicia Foxx, who studies the interplay of roots of native and invasive plants, is glued to the action. The results of this contest, says the plant biology and conservation doctoral …
Type: Blog
