… name: Venus flytrap. We added the wetlands-loving venus flytrap and other carnivorous plants in mini bogs that we created on the Green Roof Garden at the Daniel F. and Ada L. Rice Plant … insects with nectar. Insects slip down the “pitcher” part of the plant and are liquified in the digestive juices at the bottom. Dionaea muscipula Sarracenia ‘Bug Bat’ Nepenthes alata … How do carnivorous plants attract pollinators and insects to eat at the same time? This is a complex question. Using different odor cues, color cues, and potentially even distance …
Type: Blog
… maroon.” But that’s what keeps the trains rolling at the Chicago Botanic Garden. A room in the basement of the Regenstein Center is the hive of repair activity for the Model Railroad Garden. There are also ghost trains for … when the train travels over magnets. They also invent their own fixes. They have to. Cubs fans in fresh whites never lose hope for their team winning one day. “The Amtrak train hasn’t been …
Type: Blog
… plants indoors? Better still, why not experiment with your plants to understand them better? In this activity, you will confuse a bean sprout and train it to grow in any direction you want. Sound like fun? You will need: a gallon-size zip-top bag paper towels, … trap the seed and ruin the activity.) As soon as your plant has grown a root and a stem that is 1-2 inches long, turn the bag one quarter turn and put it back. You may have to wait a week – …
Type: Blog
… The flowers are gone, the trees are bare, now what to photograph? Birds, of course! Winter is a great time to get some fabulous shots of winter birds. One huge bonus is that there are no … out our list of birds that you can expect to see at the Garden each season. A goldfinch in toned-down winter plumage enjoys seeds on the Dixon Prairie. ©Carol Freeman A male … the Buehler Enabling Garden too. You can also find a variety of birds—especially woodpeckers—in the McDonald Woods. If there is open water, check there for ducks and geese. You might be …
Type: Blog
… the Greenhouses with Boyce Tankersley, director of living plant documentation, to see what’s in bloom and take in the different climates visitors can enjoy. In the Arid Greenhouse, we saw a number of species … like pinkball dombeya ( Dombeya wallichii ). Native to East Africa and Madagascar, the genus is a highly sought-after ornamental in USDA Zones 9 and warmer. One of the rarest plants in our …
Type: Blog
… It starts with a summer filled with scientific observation at the Nativars Research Plot in the Bernice E. Lavin Plant Evaluation Garden . The observer was Christian Acevedo, a Garden … responding to human impacts, such as climate change, on the environment. One of the projects is on nativars, or cultivated varieties of native plants. Researchers are studying whether … provide the same resources for pollinators as their wild cousins. Understanding variation in pollinator attraction between natives and cultivars is critical to designing effective …
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… Interested in a healthier, happier life? Try connecting with the natural world. A new, technologically advanced body of research shows that spending time in nature can provide protection against cancer, high blood pressure, depression, stress, and … rate to brain waves to protein markers—indicate that when we spend time in green space, ‘there is something profound going on,’” said University of Utah cognitive psychologist David Strayer. …
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… ample shade for a hot summer day, and the heart-shaped leaves turn an outstanding gold color in the fall. They have a very symmetrical conical shape, strong central leader, and can reach a … by twig, a crew of four to five staff members from the Grounds Department prunes all 28 trees in the Linden Allée to precise measurements—once in the winter for shaping, and once in the summer for detail grooming. The design is very uniform and creates a formal allée of trees. The sides are pruned at a slight, almost …
Type: Blog
… at the Garden. While managing some tall vegetation on the gravel hill of the Dixon Prairie in summer 2016, I noticed something I have not seen in a while. It was a thistle! Hill’s thistle ( Cirsium hillii ) Hill’s thistle ( Cirsium hillii ) blooming This thistle was not the Canada thistle ( Cirsium canadensis ), which is a non-native weed that is commonly seen along the roadsides and in your garden. What I …
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… to see what you come up with. Post your photos, #Lightscape, and tag us: @chicagobotanic. Blur is good If you manually focus closer to your lens, distant points of light grow into luminous … on a nearby subject and then repositioning the composition on lights that are farther away. In addition to boken backgrounds, you can add glowing orbs to the foreground by shooting through … than your point of focus. You might even bring your own small battery-operated strand to hold in front of your lens. No tripod; no worries Tripods are not allowed at Lightscape. Instead, …
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