… on the Earth that serves as an ideal medium for growing plants. It contains inorganic minerals from weathered and broken rocks combined with organic material from the decomposed remains of dead plants and animals. Real soil hosts microscopic bacteria and … would find on the surface of Mars is called regolith , which is mineral particles that result from weathering of rocks. Since my mixture is an approximation of what might be found on Mars, …
Type: Blog
… L. After locating a group of trees in Delhaas Woods, he and his team took cuttings from new growth and packed them into their bags. The murky waters that now stood between them and a successful exit from the overgrown site were deep and dangerous, and wading out was not an option. They had no … magnolia tree stands out in Delhaas Woods, Bucks County, Pennsylvania. By taking plant samples from the field, he and his team hope to grow new generations of sweetbay magnolia plants that can …
Type: Blog
… Join me in contemplating the sweetness of plants. All sugar comes from plants. All of it. Plants are the only thing on earth that can make sugar, and plants are … cell walls are composed of a substance called cellulose , which is a compound sugar. Sugars from plants are the basis of our food chain. Our favorite dietary sugar, sucrose, comes from the juices of sugar cane or sugar beets, which are boiled until the water evaporates, …
Type: Blog
… Of the many Spike-related questions asked by visitors this week, our favorite came from 8-year-old Prairie! In the video below, Prairie wants to know, in essence, if she can transport Spike’s malodorous odor from the Chicago Botanic Garden to her classroom. Good question, Prairie! Conservation … Still will attempt to pollinate Spike’s flowers during bloom with pollen shared by our friends from The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens, and Denver Botanic Gardens. …
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… more environmentally friendly holiday season: Decorate with natural materials: Collect things from your yard to use as holiday decorations. Dried flowers, evergreen boughs, and acorns can become a table centerpiece. Choose a tree you can see from your window to decorate for the birds, and hang it with pinecone bird feeders and strings of … Try out some of these ideas and get inspiration for more on December 15 at our free Gifts from the Garden drop-in. It is from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. in Burnstein Hall of the Regenstein Center. …
Type: Blog
… orchid roots. A traditional winter drink in the cafés and restaurants of Turkey, salep is made from the tuberous roots of orchids—specifically, terrestrial orchids in the genus Orchis . Dried … steamed or boiling milk. Sprinkle with cinnamon. Serve in small cups. Our lesson in salep came from the one person who had not only tasted salep before but had grown up drinking it—horticulturist Ayse Pogue, who hails from Istanbul. Salep is not readily available in America; it arrived here courtesy of Ayse’s …
Type: Blog
… Botanic Garden —walkers with friends, just-engaged couples , hummingbirds that can’t keep away from our nectar-rich honeysuckle. With open, fluttering hearts, we’re paying homage to …
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… Science Foundation and Natural Science Foundation of China, the workshop brought systemicists from both countries together to explore research techniques and opportunities. (Systematics is … diversity of life and relationships among different groups of organisms, and spans subjects from plants and fungi to primates and viruses.) Patrick Herendeen leads a discussion among systemisists from various fields. “People bring different expertise to a research project, and people with …
Type: Blog
… are admittedly a persnickety group to cultivate, with many of them inhabiting harsh habitats from baking desert valleys to frigid alpine rock outcrops. So phlox breeding efforts in the past … above. My breeding work at the Garden has always focused on developing new garden plants from interspecific hybridization, or crossing different species in the same genus. I’ve used this … where phlox may yet exist in the wild. I say “may,” as the earliest records I located were from the 1940s—never a good harbinger, as urban sprawl, agriculture, and the like all too often …
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… and help put people into space. As part of Science First each summer, about 40 students from Chicago Public Schools travel to the Garden by school bus from designated stops all around the city to spend up to four weeks being immersed in a free, … science enrichment program. Science First inspires students in grades 8 to 10 who come from backgrounds underrepresented in science to pursue careers in STEM—science, technology, …
Type: Blog
