Don’t miss our summer exhibit

Our Summer Exhibit is
A Plant Story : From Fern to Flower.

Have you seen our summer show?  Besides being filled with pretty flowers and interesting plants like the Venus fly trap, the show introduces visitors to plant evolution and biology.

The Venus fly trap has adapted to soils poor in nitrogen. They ‘trap’ insects and break down their bodies.  Sort of a nitrogen supplement!

In the flower section of the show see these hibiscus flowers.  

Look up for our flowering begonias and pothos, a common houseplant for many home gardeners.

As a special treat, we have bananas growing in our conservatory.  The large purple structure is the inflorescence.  The purple bracts lift up and show the flowers. These flowers drop off and bananas begin to form.  These flowers do not need pollination!  This cultivar is ‘Ice Cream’ and they are small and delicious!

One of the vines growing in the conservatory is the Bat-Leaved passionflower.  Its leaves resemble a wing spread.  The flowers are small and green.

The first part of the exhibit shows plant evolution from ferns which reproduce by spores to seed producing plants, the angiosperms and gymnosperms. Examples of these are the Norfolk Island pine and the lantana standard.