… Did you know that one in every three bites of food you take required a pollinator visit? Pollination is essential for many of our favorite foods—from almonds to vanilla, and so many fruits and vegetables in between. The decline of pollinators around the world is threatening not only our food supply but also the function of plant communities and ecosystems. Multiple factors play a role in pollinator decline, including land-use changes, pesticide use, climate change, and the spread …
Type: Blog
… When buckthorn moves in to the ecosystem, it dominates. Imagine a friend invites you to a dinner party, promising a … aren’t eating the kale, the kale continues to dominate the party. Even if someone brought in better foods that more people enjoy, there is no room on the tables. The kale is everywhere! … forest ecosystems. The dinner guests are like the other plants and animals that usually live in the woods. They have certain dietary needs, and if those needs cannot be met, they will have …
Type: Blog
… farming as a means to independence — would be tickled to see the American Seed Saver bed in the Regenstein Fruit & Vegetable Garden. There, visitors will find varieties of heirloom fruits and vegetables grown by our third president, Thomas Jefferson, in his country estate at Monticello , just outside Charlottesville, Virginia. Many of these varieties are also grown in Michelle Obama’s organic vegetable garden on the White House grounds. Lisa Hilgenberg in …
Type: Blog
… Create a miniature landscape in an open, shallow container: a dish garden! Gather small foliage and flowering plants together in a decorative container—like a basket or saucer—for a versatile display you can enjoy … Dish gardens are easy to grow, very adaptable to most environments, and can be placed anywhere in the home. Even if you do not have a green thumb, you’ll find it difficult to kill a dish …
Type: Blog
… One day at Butterflies & Blooms, I noticed a crepuscular , cosmopolitan imago puddling in order to prepare for an upcoming lek . What did I just say? The vocabulary surrounding … decode the sentence above. The very cosmopolitan painted lady (Vanesa cardui) Cosmopolitan— In this case, a cosmopolitan is not a mixed drink or a well-traveled individual—although this term is related to being in many geographic locations. "Cosmopolitan" describes a butterfly species that is found …
Type: Blog
… been with the Garden since 2003, when he began as a seasonal horticulture assistant working in the Landscape Demonstration Garden. Shortly thereafter, he was promoted to Grounds department crew leader and then in 2008 to assistant horticulturist for the Garden Wall and Berm. He also teaches for the Joseph … Regenstein, Jr. School of the Chicago Botanic Garden. Cantwell has a bachelor of arts degree in mass communications from Columbia College, Chicago, and a master of science degree in …
Type: Staff bio
… the mushroom du jour. Three of the cases involved this toxic mushroom that is commonly found in yards after summer rains. It looks lovely, and it usually won’t kill you, but I’m told that it … starting one to three hours after ingestion. This is the most commonly eaten toxic mushroom in the United States. It might seem like a bumper crop of free eats in your lawn, but Chlorophyllum molybdites is toxic. Today’s other culprit was Panaeolina …
Type: Blog
… What’s the first plant you ever loved? In the past two years since I co-founded Plant Love Stories, people have told me their stories. I … you remember your grandma’s hydrangeas, neighborhood trees you climbed as a child, or a plant in a habitat far from home that stoked your curiosity about the natural world. Maybe it’s the … its name that you started to really notice it. Maybe there’s a plant you encountered somewhere in your past that changed everything: your hobby, your professional path, your livelihood, your …
Type: Blog
… this past spring and summer. Lately, the butterflies have gotten the lion’s share of PR. In particular, the monarch butterfly is on nearly everyone’s radar, due to its precarious … and moths, the numbers of moth species outnumber the butterflies by more than ten to one in North America ! In fact, there is a moth species that is also dependent on milkweeds—the milkweed tussock moth ( …
Type: Blog
… for a remarkable diversity of fossil plants and animals. The Early Cretaceous of Mongolia in particular is well known for its fossil dinosaurs and other vertebrates, but fossil plants … and vegetational change, immediately prior to the major diversification of angiosperms. In Mongolia we are studying well-preserved seed plants from multiple Early Cretaceous age … cones, seeds and other plant parts preserved three-dimensionally as lignified mesofossils. In addition, there are also well-preserved compression fossils from several localities. From the …
Type: Staff bio
