After looking at it closely, horticulturists Jared Chauncey and Dave Gunn have determined that the plant in front of them is, in fact, Quercus arkansana. They collect several different plant parts—branches, leaves, and acorns. A few of them will be pressed, dried, and mounted to create two herbarium vouchers—one for the National Arboretum and one…
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The Future of Agriculture
Contemporary agriculture is largely based on monocultures of annual plants. Endless rows of single crops––corn, bananas, soybeans, wheat––are the norm when you think of today’s farms in many places in the world. However, the cultivation and harvesting cycle of these annual plants can lead to soil erosion problems, changes in the composition of soil, and…
The Garden As A New, Modern Ark
Botanical gardens hold documented collections of living plants for the purposes of scientific research, conservation, display, and education. Serving as a botanical ark will always be at the core of institutions like the Missouri Botanical Garden. However, new times call for new measures. Plant species are going extinct at unprecedented rates today, and botanical gardens’…