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Plant Talk

Inside The New York Botanical Garden

Morning Eye Candy: Pre-Flight Checks

Posted in Around the Garden, Photography on February 18 2013, by Matt Newman

Nope, they won’t all be this easy to spot. But seeing as this is the last day of this year’s Great Backyard Bird Count, take what you can get! Seeing as we’re open on this particular President’s Day, we’ll be tallying up our feathered friends all afternoon. You’ll find “birder headquarters” in the Everett Children’s Adventure Garden. And even if you don’t have binoculars, that’s no excuse to sit this one out–we’ve got a handful of loaner pairs available from the Visitor’s Center.

Say hi to birdie

Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen

This Weekend: The Great Backyard Bird Count!

Posted in Programs and Events on February 15 2013, by Matt Newman

The NYBG WeekendWhether you’re binocular-savvy or just looking to lock down your birdwatching game, this is your weekend! And thanks to President’s Day, it’s the perfect opportunity to take part in the Great Backyard Bird Count, if only because you’ll have three straight days to join us at the NYBG. Winter is undeniably the best time of year to see our feathered friends on the wing, owing to the barren branches and annual mating habits of the raptors, songbirds, and waterfowl that call our neck of the Bronx home. So get off your couch, strap on some boots, and join up!

Even if you’re not quite an expert on all things avian, it’s never too late to learn; Debbie Becker will be on hand for her weekly Saturday birdwalk, where she’ll be more than happy to give lay birders a crash course in spotting and identification. And because the GBBC is so important to helping ornithologists and environmentalists understand the state of the nation’s bird populations, we even have a few pairs of binoculars to loan out at the Visitor’s Center for those who don’t have their own.

Over in the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory, we continue our yearly winter tradition of Tropical Paradise with guided tours, photography contests, camera workshops, and all the warmth of a South American rain forest. So if you’re sick of wrestling with the cold, this is an opportunity to at least pretend you’re a few thousand miles south, trading your parka for a t-shirt.

We know it’s chilly out, but we have more than a few cures for your winter woes. We’ll even be open on Monday, so come visit!

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Spring Orchids Cometh

Posted in The Orchid Show on February 14 2013, by Matt Newman

The Orchid ShowTimpani drums and chorus lines may seem a bit dramatic for a flower exhibition–at least up until you see what’s been growing behind the doors of the Nolen Greenhouses for Living Collections! While Tropical Paradise winds down for another year, NYBG horticulturists are already hard at work on our next monumental event, prepping the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory for the arrival of thousands upon thousands of technicolor beauties. For over a decade now, The Orchid Show has defined spring in New York, snapping us out of our winter doldrums and dropping us straight into shorts and sandals. And this year, we’re not missing a beat.

Under the curation of our Vice President of Glasshouses and Exhibitions, Francisca Coelho, The Orchid Show may just be the blockbuster of the year. We’re certainly buzzing with excitement at the thought of it. But maybe you need a small reminder of the myriad colors waiting for you come March.

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Tropical Insects Don’t Like Snow!

Posted in Science on February 14 2013, by Scott Mori

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 nearly 35 years. He has witnessed an unrelenting reduction in the extent of the forests he studies and, as a result, is dedicated to preserving the diversity of plants and animals found there.

Tree down, October 2011
Snow in South Salem, New York in October 2011.

“So what,” you must be saying to yourself. In spite of how obvious the title is, the lack of cold weather in the tropics contributes both directly and indirectly to tropical biodiversity, the topic of this blog.

One of the many reasons that there are high numbers of species represented by low numbers of individuals in old growth tropical forests–compared to the opposite situation in temperate forests–is because of the greater number of plant/animal interactions in the former. In one of our 2.5 acre tree study plots in central Amazonian Brazil, we registered 285 species of trees with diameters at or above four inches at breast height. Because our plots average 600 trees above this size class per plot, almost every second tree we sampled represented a different species. In contrast, there are fewer than 100 species of trees of all size classes in the entire state of Wisconsin, where I grew up.

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