Botanical Gardens: Conservancy of Flowers

My aunt and I visited the Conservancy of Flowers in Golden Gate Park a few years ago. We saw the dinosaur exhibit – complete with the whimsical dinosaur head punching its way through the roof of the conservatory. The collection is housed in a wonderful, Victorian greenhouse structure that is painted white to provide diffused lighting for the plants.

The conservatory is devoted to subtropical plants of highlands (cool) and lowlands (hot). The building has several distinct areas, including those for special exhibits, potted plants, and aquatic plants, as well as areas for plants of the highlands and lowlands.
 

Entrance to the Conservancy of Flowers in Golden Gate Park

Subtropical potted plants

The plants are well marked with informative signs, making it easy for the botany lover to learn more about new or favorite plants.

Signage also provides interesting information about the plants or ethnobotany

I was especially enamored to see plants for some of the spices we have learned about as part of our holiday cooking series, including ginger, vanilla, and nutmeg; and the giant water lily pads that can support a small animal, or person.

The aquatic plants are especially appealing

A plant sale is held every fall and spring, and the web site list the plants that are currently in bloom.

Cardamom, also used in cooking	Orchids growing midcanapy
Lotus flower	Carnivorous plants

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I recommend this conservatory for finding out more about subtropical plants. The building and the collection brings to mind the Victorian era, when everyone was mad to classify and collect plants. The madness continues – maybe in a different way. Now we want to learn more, to conserve what we have, and to learn all the lessons we can before it is too late.

 

Address: Golden Gate Park; 100 John F. Kennedy Drive; San Francisco, CA 94118 Web Site: http://www.conservatoryofflowers.org/ Golden Gate Park Map (scroll down): http://www.conservatoryofflowers.org/visit/directions/ For other botanical collections in the San Francisco Bay Area see: http://www.edenbythebay.blogspot.com/2015/02/botanical-collections-of-bay-area.html

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Botanical Collections of the Bay Area

The San Francisco Bay Area offers a wonderful array of botanical collections. This is a great resource for learning more about plants, and the regions of the world from which they come. Here is a summary of some of my favorites, and the plant collections they offer.


 

Botanical Collection	Description
University of California, Santa Cruz Arboretum	Mediterranean plants from Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and California. http://arboretum.ucsc.edu/
Tilden Regional Park, Regional Parks Botanic Garden	Plants from California arranged in ten major geographic regions (such as Southern California Desert, Redwood, Sierras, Pacific Rain Forest, Valley-Foothill, and Santa Lucia). http://www.ebparks.org/parks/tilden/botanic_garden
Conservancy of Flowers Golden Gate Park, San Francisco	Subtropical plants from places of exceptional beauty (highland and lowland); and special exhibits (such as dinosaur plants, and underwater plants). http://www.conservatoryofflowers.org/
San Francisco Botanical Garden	Plants of the Mediterranean, South Africa, New Zealand, the Americas, California, Asia; and special collections (such as cloud forests, moon gardens, succulents, and ancient plants). Formerly Strybing Arboretum. http://www.sfbotanicalgarden.org/
University of California, Botanical Garden at Berkeley	Plants from around the world arranged in nine major geographic regions (such as Mediterranean, South Africa, Australasia, the Americas, and California); and special collections (such as Chinese Medicinal Herb, old roses, cycads and palms, crops of the world, tropical, and carnivorous plants). http://botanicalgarden.berkeley.edu/

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This is not an exhaustive list, but it is a good place to start. Over the year, I’ll report on some of these botanical collections, and see what they have to offer.

The benefit of local botanical gardens is that you can visit them often and in season, ensuring you see something new every visit.

Botantical Collections – What's the Diff?

We throw around some botanical terms pretty freely here at Eden By The Bay—botanical garden, conservatory, arboretum, herbarium—but what is the difference really? The terms all convey a plant collection of some type, and we know generally what they mean. But let's take a closer look at the differences.

Entrance to the botanical garden at University of California, Berkeley

Type	Description
Botanical garden	A garden dedicated to the collection, cultivation and display of live plants labeled with their botanical names. They may be displayed in a variety of ways – aesthetically, thematically, or regionally. Botanical gardens are frequently open to the public, and may periodically sell plants from their collections. Early botanical gardens consisted of healing plants, but later expanded to all types of plants.
Conservatory	A greenhouse or structure in which plants are arranged for display or cultivation. The walls and ceiling are typically made of glass or similar material, and temperature and humidity can be controlled. A conservatory is ideal for tender plants that need protection, or require special environmental conditions.
Arboretum	A place or park where an extensive variety of trees, shrubs, and woody plants are cultivated for scientific, educational, and ornamental purposes. They are a specialized botanical garden.
Herbarium	A repository of dried, pressed plant specimens that are labeled and arranged for access and archival storage. The label includes useful information about the plant and its origin. The archival storage is typically climate controlled to ensure preservation. Physical access may be limited to students or scholars, but some herbarium collections are available online.

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I will probably continue to use the term “botanical garden” a bit loosely, but it is good to know the more precise term when necessary.