In St. Louis, the Cardinals have thrown the first pitch of the season, the weather is heating up, and our local biodiversity is blooming, sprouting, and flying all around us. You’ve dusted off your baseball cap and enjoyed a picnic. Now it’s time to test your nature observation skills! We need you, community scientists, to…
Tag: biodiversity
Garden Study on Biodiversity Helps Focus Conservation Efforts
Around the world, tropical forests are disappearing at alarming rates. As conservations race against time to protect these ecosystems, it’s crucial to know where it would be most fruitful to focus their efforts. Key to that is data. While it has long been understood that Latin America is richer in plant species than tropical Africa, scientists…
5 Ways the Garden is Protecting Biodiversity at Home and Around the World
Protecting and conserving plants and their ecosystems has always been the heart of the Missouri Botanical Garden’s work, and with plant diversity disappearing at an alarming rate, that work has never been more important. Environmental protection takes many forms; here are just a few of the ways the Garden works to preserve biodiversity here at…
Searching for Spring: Scavenger Hunt App
Shelter in place restrictions aimed at fighting the spread of COVID-19 may have many people feeling cooped up indoors. But spring is just outside your door! Wherever you live, spring is all around us. You may find it in your own backyard, or with a simple walk around your neighborhood. A walk is a great…
Endangered Bats Highlight Biodiversity at Shaw Nature Reserve
Proper safeguarding and stewardship of our flora has the very intended effect of also benefiting our fauna. Just like humans, animals depend on plants for things like food and shelter. And plants often rely on animals for pollination and seed dispersal. Protecting plant habitats allows these beneficial relationships to occur as nature intended. Monarch butterflies…
Growth in the Great Outdoors
The transformative power of plants, people, and places “I won’t hike,” the 12-year old said. I paused, not exactly sure how to respond. As one of the parent chaperones on a recent Girl Scout outing, I needed this girl to get out of the car. We had arrived at our destination. It was a beautiful,…
Biodiversity Cake
This ‘Biodiversity Cake’ includes ingredients from as many as 16 different plant species from all parts of the world. When we enjoy a slice of rich fruit cake, we should remember how the Plant Kingdom provides us with a remarkable range of products, which we can combine in ingenious ways to produce delicious foods! …