Repositioning plants

A introduced me to another volunteer (C...) who has expert knowledge about orchids. He was instructing E... on the details of orchid care. C... is the greenhouse's expert orchid grower, with many award ribbons to his credit.

I helped Al... and F... to move the floor-based small trees in C2. Their location was cleared, cleaned, and replaced by a waist-high table onto which we placed small plants. The space created on the adjacent low-table we placed the small trees up off of the concrete, presumably to allow better drainage, air circulation and pest resistance. Edible plants were placed at the south end of the low table. Bananas, gingers, and marantas were placed at the north end of the waist-high table. To make room for the waist-high table, we also had to remove one of the black troughs. The water plants within it (an aquatic fern Salvinia minima. “water spangles”) were relocated to a glass aquarium situated on the waist-high table.

I scrubbed the sooty mold off from the leaves of one of the small plants in C2, an understory plant, located near a group of orchids on a low table.

While the crew were having their usual Thursday meeting in the workroom I occupied myself by cleaning under the new waist-high table in C2, pruning dead leaves throughout the room, and picking up fallen leaves from the floor and pots. Later, I swept the path in D2, and pruned dead leaves in D2-4.

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A Sensitive Plant and Common Weed

Mimosa pudica, also commonly called the sensitive plant was a popular houseplant when I was growing up in the 1970s. It was popular for its ability to quicky change shape by folding up its leaves to protect them from herbivore predators. At the slightest touch the plant is able to expell water from special cells in the leaves, changing the shape from frond-like to a stick-form. The plant creeps along the ground, never for than a foot or so in height. In tropical parts of the world this plant is considered and invasive weed. Today, as I was treating plants to remove pests I happened to touch the leaves of a Mimosa pudica , one with a pretty puff-like flower. Sure enough, the leaves all folded up to almost nothing. Mimosa pudica , the sensitive plant Other more routine chores during my four-hour shift at the U of M Conservatory included cleaning three plants of Hibiscus clayi, native to Hawaii. These three plants in particular have suffered repeated infestations with a variety of in...

Bog Monsters

As a layman of botany the idea of carnivorous plants has perplexed me. The capturing and eating of other creatures seems like it ought to be limited to animals, since animals are mobile and plants are not. Almost all plants survive and thrive in the world through photosynthesis. They do not need to feed on animals to survive. But, what about the group of plants that are carnivorous? As stationary plants, why and how do they eat critters? This topic was stimulated by my assignment today at the Conservatory Greenhouse of the University of Minnesota. My task was to clean several large tanks of water filled with aquatic plants. While cleaning the tanks I realized many of the plants were classified as carnivorous . What is it about the aquatic environment that causes plants to eat - in effect - other creatures? The short answer is carnivorous plants evolved in nutrient-poor settings such as pond water which is naturally low in the amount of nitrogen needed to synthesize proteins. To compens...

Rebuilding the support for vanilla vines

Raining in February The morning began with a walk in the rain from my car to the Conservatory greenhouses - in the month of February. According to the calendar, we should be in the depths of winter. The precipitation today should be snow not rain. The storm system that we're experiencing is probably related to drenching rains moving inland from the west coast. I met Coordinator A... at the door of the Conservatory. His office desk faces one of the main doors to the building. He cannot escape observing everyone who enters...poor guy, it must be distracting for him. Anyway, as soon as I entered the building we started to discuss his plan for my activity of the morning. He offered me the project of rebuilding the support for vanilla vines which have been suffering from overexposure to sunlight and dry air. A bit of background The vanilla plant (Vanilla planifolia) is in the orchid family. It is native to Central America and Mexico. The seed pods were used by the Aztecs to flavor coc...

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