Inside The New York Botanical Garden

Plant Talk

Picturing the Benefits Of Being A Member

Posted in Members on January 5 2011, by Plant Talk

Melanie Patterson is a Membership Coordinator.

New Members of NYBG at the Holiday Workshop. Photo by Melanie J. Patterson

2010 was an awesome year here at The New York Botancial Garden. I had the great opportunity to join Members on so many wonderful, enriching trips and programs–a great side-benefit to Membership. We enjoyed guided tours of New York City cultural hot spots, like The Cloisters and the High Line; were given exclusive, behind the scenes tours by NYBG curators of the Conservatory, the Nolen Greenhouses, and the Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garden.

Longwood Gardens at Christmas. Photo by Nicholas Perdikos, Member since 1992

I asked a few of our photo-savvy Members to share their pictures of a special trip we took down to Longwood Gardens in Kennett Square, Pa. The Conservatory was beautifully decorated in holiday flair and the water fountain show was tons of fun.

Most recently, at the kids’ holiday workshop, Members and their children created holiday houses in the fashion as those in the Holiday Train Show, using natural ingredients like dried cedar, cinnamon sticks, pine cones, and magnolia leaves.

The water fountain show at Longwood Gardens. Photo by Nicholas Perdikos, Member since 1992

Already scheduled for the New Year, Members will be able to go on guided historical walking tours of New York City, take mansion and garden tours across New York state, and attend the 2011 Philadelphia International Flower Show.

More Member trips and programs are being added all the time. Here’s to a great 2011!

How Climate Change Impacts the Extent of Tropical Rain Forests

Posted in Science on January 5 2011, by Plant Talk

Scott A. Mori, Ph.D., Nathaniel Lord Britton Curator of Botany, has been studying New World rain forests for The New York Botanical Garden for over 35 years. He has witnessed an unrelenting reduction in their extent and, as a result, is concerned about their survival.

Deforestation followed by fires for creating agricultural fields and pasture releases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere at such an accelerated rate in the tropics that it is a major contributor to global warming. Photo by Scott Mori

There are many different types of vegetation in the New World tropics. But rather than being a homogeneous whole, what grows where and when in these tropics is determined to a large extent by water availability and temperature variation. Climate change could potentially have a drastic impact on this region, especially on the rain forests. Liebig’s Law of the Minimum states that plant or animal growth is controlled by the scarcest resource in the environment; this is known as a limiting factor. For example, if a soil possesses all nutrients needed for plant growth except potassium, then the paucity of that nutrient will limit the potential growth of all plants except those that can grow in potassium-poor soils. Potassium is therefore a limiting factor for that soil.

More on the application of Liebig's Law to the destruction of Amazonian rainforests below.

Morning Eye Candy: The Perfect Perch

Posted in Photography on January 5 2011, by Plant Talk

For preening, don’t you think?

Red-Tailed Hawk on the roof of the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory (photo by Ann Rafalko)

Morning Eye Candy: Orange

Posted in Photography on January 4 2011, by Plant Talk

A burst of color to enliven your winter morning.

Lindera erythrocarpa Japanese spicebush in the Azalea Garden (photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen)

Counting Birds in the Bronx

Posted in Around the Garden on January 3 2011, by Plant Talk

In what has become an annual holiday tradition, a group of intrepid bird watchers gathered at The New York Botanical Garden early on the day after Christmas (and just ahead of the Boxing Day Blizzard) to survey the Garden’s avian residents. Led by Steve Nanz, the group fanned out over the Garden’s 250-acres to count our feathered friends. In the end, the annual census was called early on account of the snow.

Despite that, the group still managed to spot 36 species, and a few rare birds, the highlight being a beautiful little Saw-whet Owl (pictured at right).

See the complete survey results below.

Morning Eye Candy: Camouflage

Posted in Photography on January 3 2011, by Plant Talk

Despite his soft white belly, one of our resident hawks is barely visible against winter’s blue sky. Do you see him?

Lone Hawk (photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen)

Morning Eye Candy: Walkies

Posted in Photography on January 2 2011, by Plant Talk

Does your New Year’s resolution include more exercise? The Garden’s forest is a wonderful place to take a walk in any season. And we just reopened the Spicebush Trail. So pull on your boots and hat and come take a walk!