The Art & Science of Plant & Fungi Herbarium Collections

After several months of bare tree branches, I am ready for the arrival of spring and with it returning to Colorado’s flower filled natural areas. The gardeners I know spend these short days and long cold nights perusing seed and plant catalogs to gear up for the next season.

In lieu of shiny catalogs, botanists, like myself, and mycologists work with specimens (mycologists study organisms in the kingdom Fungi). Specimens are individual plants or fungi that have been dried and archived into a collection. These plants and fungal specimens are collected as part of a scientific study to document species diversity and distribution.

The specimens themselves serve as a voucher or as a representative of the population for future botanical and mycological research. For botanists, anxious to get out into the field, specimens allow us to continue our work even when the plants or fungi are dormant for the season. Likely for this reason, in the 1500’s, the Italian botanist and physician Luca Ghini developed the practice of preserving plants by pressing and drying them when freshly collected, and then  
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A Bank You Can Trust: the Seed Bank

As the Greek government, its creditors, and the bankers at the International Monetary Fund continue to discuss Eurobonds and interest rates, my thoughts have wandered from the European Central Bank to another sort of bank altogether—the seed bank.
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Seed Dormancy: Botanical “Hibernation”

While taking advantage of the warm daytime temperatures in recent weeks to get some pruning in, I was hailed from the pathway nearby.

“Do you ever worry about seeds coming up early during warm spells like this?”

In a word, “no.”  But why not?
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Another successful field season for the Research & Conservation department

The changing of the seasons is marked in the Research & Conservation department not only by the fact that the days are getting noticeably shorter, but by the fact that we have all returned indoors for the year. The growing and collecting season has dwindled for our botanists and mycologists, and we are now busy processing and analyzing the fruits of our summer labors.

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Bat Encounter: Live at the Gardens!

By Rob Mies
Organization for Bat Conservation

Bats are some of the most diverse, ecologically important, and unique mammals on Earth.  There are over 1,200 different kinds of bats worldwide, making up roughly a quarter of all mammalian species.  They are the primary predators of nighttime insects, pollinators of hundreds of plants, and seed dispersers of tropical fruit trees.  Yet due to centuries of myths and misunderstandings, bat populations have been drastically declining and in need of immediate conservation assistance.

Myths of bats are based off of lack of information.  For instance, bats are not blind, in fact, they can see quite well.  Bats will not get tangled in human hair and do not build nests.  Bats in the United States do not drink blood and very few contract rabies.  To the contrary, bats are clean, caring, timid
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Sterling Ranch: A Sustainable Partnership

As we look for ways to conserve our natural resources and create sustainable communities, Denver Botanic Gardens in partnership with Sterling Ranch has helped create low-water sustainable landscapes at their demonstration site at Allis Ranch in Douglas County. Sterling Ranch will be Colorado’s first rainwater harvesting community and this project will set a new standard for water conservation in Colorado.

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Three Colorado wildflowers added to the endangered species list

Botanists conducting annual monitoring of the Parachute penstemon

Effective today, three rare Colorado plants have been added to the list of species protected under the federal Endangered Species Act. Both DeBeque Phacelia (Phacelia submutica), and Parachute Penstemon (Penstemon debilis) are listed as threatened while the Pagosa skyrocket (Ipomopsis polyantha) is listed as endangered. DeBeque phacelia and Parachute penstemon are restricted to shale slopes on South Shale Ridge and the Roan Plateau in Western Colorado. Energy development and exploration is the biggest threat to these species.
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New brown bag series: Re-search the Gardens: Meet Our Scientists

Are you familiar with Denver Botanic Gardens Research & Conservation department? Have you ever wanted to know more about the type of research we do? We currently have ten staff in our Research & Conservation department with a lot of scientific expertise; we have three PhD and five MS degrees between us. In addition to our core staff, we have seven adjunct researchers collaborating with us on various projects ranging from curating our ethnobotanical collection, to evaluating revegetation practices after removal of invasive species. Our new brown bag series: Re-search the Gardens: Meet Our scientists will provide you with the opportunity to meet the Gardens’ scientists and learn about the great work we do to protect our region’s natural heritage.

The first talk in the series will be held on Wednesday July 13 in the Waring House Great Room from noon – 1 p.m.

The opening talk in the series ‘Conservation genetics at the Gardens: Using DNA to protect our rarest plants,’ will cover how and why we are using DNA to help conserve some of our rarest plants.

For more details on the series visit our website.