Skip to main content
 
Plant Talk

Inside The New York Botanical Garden

Ann Rafalko

UPDATED: Caribbean Garden Photography Contest: Week Four Winners!

Posted in Photography on February 22 2012, by Ann Rafalko

Sunny mid-week greetings to you friends! The weather is just glorious here at the Garden, which might make it hard for anyone visiting to justify spending time inside the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory today. But, I’m here to announce this week’s winners in the Caribbean Garden Photography Contest, which should provide some motivation to wander the lush galleries of the Conservatory, snapping shots in an effort towards winning one of our two $100 Adult Education gift certificates! This week’s batch of photos came with numerous rounds of  rapid fire tie breaking. Congratulations to the winners!

Note: Due to a violation of the date restriction in place for this contest, the original winner of the Sense of Place category has been disqualified. New winners are below.

Sense of Place Winner, Week Four

Read More

Caribbean Garden Photography Contest: Week Two Winners!

Posted in Photography on February 7 2012, by Ann Rafalko

Rhythm, texture, and light captivated the photographers in the second week of our annual Caribbean Garden Photography Contest. There were considerably more entries this week, and the competition was fierce. And why shouldn’t it be? There’s $200 worth of NYBG Adult Education Gift Certificates up for grabs; $100 to each winner in our two categories–Macro and Sense of Place–good towards the class of your choosing at the Garden or at our Midtown Center.

So without further ado, our winners.

Sense of Place Winner, Week Two

Read More

Caribbean Garden Photography Contest: Week One Winners!

Posted in Photography on February 1 2012, by Ann Rafalko

The first week of the Caribbean Garden Photography Contest was a well-fought match with many beautiful photographs entered. But that’s not all we’re here to tell you. We also would like to announce that the Grand Prize in each category–Sense of Place and Macro–will be receiving $100 Adult Education Gift Certificates good towards the class of your choosing at the Garden or at our Midtown Center. The certificate can be used for any class–not just photography! Now that’s a prize worth competing for.

Do you think you have what it takes? Check out this week’s winners! If you think you can do better, become a Friend of the Garden, get a code good for 50% off your Caribbean Garden tickets, and head to the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory to start shooting!

Macro Winner, Week One

Read More

NYBG Science in the News: Plain English and the Tree of Life

Posted in NYBG in the News, Science on January 30 2012, by Ann Rafalko

The turn of the year from 2011 to 2012 was an exciting time for the scientists who work, teach, and research at The New York Botanical Garden.

No longer necessary: The describing of plants in Latin, followed by a translation in English.
No longer necessary: The describing of plants in Latin, followed by a translation in English.

In December, scientists at the Botanical Garden, the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH), New York University, and Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory announced that they had created the largest genome-based tree of life for seed plants to date. In January, James S. Miller, Ph.D., Dean and Vice President for Science at the Garden, explained important changes in the requirements for the naming of newly discovered plants beginning in 2012. Earlier in 2011, Dr. Miller had been the lead author on an article in the online journal PhytoKeys summarizing the changes. To say that these scientific advancements are huge is a gross understatement, but how to understand them?

Let’s use plain English, which is exactly what the new plant-naming requirements do. As outlined in an op-ed published in the New York Times on January 22, Dr. Miller, who took part in the International Botanical Congress in Melbourne, Australia, where the changes were approved, explains that plants will still be named in Latin, but that they will no longer have to be described in Latin. This laborious process–which has been on the botanical books since 1908–is only the first hurdle each botanist must clear before he may name a new plant species. The next step, the publishing of this description in a printed, paper-based journal, has also been done away with by the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature in an effort to speed the naming of plants. Why the hurry? As Dr. Miller says, “as many as one-third of all plant species (may be) at risk of extinction in the next 50 years.” One way to save a plant is to name a plant. From there, scientists–freed from the strictures of Latin–may further investigate the plant and all of its potentialities.

Read More

A January Walk in the Forest

Posted in Around the Garden on January 6 2012, by Ann Rafalko

Ann Rafalko is Director of Online Content.

Can you believe this weather? I can’t imagine that it can last, and after this week’s earlier cold snap, I have vowed to take advantage of every warm day the winter of 2012 throws at me by getting outside and taking a walk. Today during lunch I took my new favorite stroll through the Forest. The walk takes just under an hour if you really dawdle and take your time to admire the winter landscape. This weather is perfect for this: just chilly enough to make the bare branches not seem out of place, and just warm enough to let me linger and admire all the interesting things in the Forest without getting frozen toes. So, I encourage you to take advantage of this unusual weather, too, and come visit the Garden this warm winter weekend. Come for the Holiday Train Show, but stay for the Forest. This is a rare gift, enjoy it!

My walk starts at Twin Lakes. The lakes–which just a week ago were busy with muskrats and ducks–are finally beginning to show signs of freezing.

See what the Spicebush Trail has to offer winter walkers below.

Morning Eye Candy: Ball Drop

Posted in Photography on December 31 2011, by Ann Rafalko

The countdown has begun! At The New York Botanical Garden, we’ll be dropping a much smaller ball when the clock strikes midnight and we usher in 2012. Where will you be tonight when the ball drops?

In Nolen

Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen