Take Our Tree ID Quiz

These thorny questions may leaf you feeling nuts, but see if you can conquer these ten questions about trees.

Saving America’s Endangered Christmas Tree

Although a common sight in living rooms across the country every holiday season, one of America’s most popular Christmas trees is under threat. However, the Missouri Botanical Garden is working to safeguard the future of the Fraser fir. Help support our conservation work by making a gift at this link. Threats Facing the Fraser Fir…

Considering Columnar Trees

During Tree Week, the Missouri Botanical Garden is celebrating its large and diverse collection of trees. It may also inspire you to consider adding more trees to your home landscaping.  If you have a smaller space, you might want to consider columnar trees. Columnar trees are characterized by being taller than they are wide at…

Tips and Tricks for Better Tree ID

Plant identification is one of the most common questions received by the Horticulture Answer Service at the Missouri Botanical Garden. And it’s an important one, too. Before you know how to care for a plant, you need to know what it is. The same is as true for trees as it is for tomatoes and…

Plant Profile: Osage Orange

It’s one of the most eye-catching things you’ll ever see on the ground, but do you know the story behind it?

A Partnership to Prevent Blight

Chinese chestnut blight has decimated North American members of the genus Castanea, which includes American chestnuts, Allegheny chinkapins, and Ozark chinquapins. The Missouri Botanical Garden’s Center for Conservation and Sustainable Development (CCSD) and Horticulture Division are working with the Ozark Chinquapin Foundation (OCF) on a project that will reveal how well individual Ozark chinquapin trees…

Butterflies Need Trees Too

Autumn is the perfect time to celebrate Tree Week. We encourage you to not only take a stroll and enjoy the fall colors, but also take a moment to think about all the life these trees support. Among those branches are thousands of different invertebrates, including centipedes and beetles, cocoons and chrysalises. Some trees are…

It’s Complicated: Trees and Ecological Restoration

The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago. The second best time is now. -Anonymous Addendum: That is, unless the tree will grow just fine without your help or the tree doesn’t really belong there. In that case, the best time might be never. Planting a tree is rejuvenating. It gets you…

Botany by Drone Takes Off at Shaw Nature Reserve

Picture in your mind a researcher in the field conducting a tree survey. Likely you imaged a trained botanist deep in a forest or jungle, swatting away insects and wiping sweat out of their eyes while keying out an unknown specimen with a hand lens, clipboard, taxonomic field guide, and a rucksack of supplies at…