Shaw botanical garden's climatron in St. Louis, MO, USA

TerdalFarm · Post by **TerdalFarm** » Fri Jul 15, 2011 10:23 am

W and I were in St. Louis this week for the annual meeting of the Botanical Society of America, meeting jointly with the American Society of Plant Taxonomists, American Fern Society and the Society of Economic Botany (http://www.botanyconference.org/). We presented on our research on annatto (Bixa orellana) in Belize (http://2011.botanyconference.org/engine ... il&aid=299).

Wednesday, we went to the Shaw Botanical Garden (http://mobot.org/). It was founded in 1859 and so has Victorian roots. For us, the highlight was the "climatron" built in 1960. I made a slideshow of snapshots. It opens with general scenes of the Shaw, then focuses on the climatron. The climatron is quite large (2200 m2) (http://www.mobot.org/press/Assets/FP/climatron.asp). I then show examples of one of my favorite palm genera, Chamaedorea. A few snapshots of interesting palms follow, then a couple of cycad shots. The last photo is of me holding the mini mare I had for a few months last year. She now lives on a farm in Missouri. Thanks for letting me hold your attention.

Cameron_z6a_N.S. · Post by **Cameron_z6a_N.S.** » Fri Jul 15, 2011 3:42 pm

Great slideshow!

lucky1 · Post by **lucky1** » Fri Jul 15, 2011 4:36 pm

Erik,
What a lovely slideshow...ooooh, drooooooooled over that Climatron.
Oh to have even a small version of such a structure to garden in year round up north.
Crazy dream I know.

Interesting that Chamaedoreas are all grown in dappled shade in the understory.
Mine could NEVER handle sun, and those that I tried to grow in 4 hours sun/day are no longer among the living

Humidity is the trick with these, I'm certain.

...and those palm seeds! Stunner of a tree fern (Jim will drool!)
Lovely palms and cycads.
My fav palms were the bottle, sealing wax, double coconut.
What a massive trunk on that Roystonea, great pic!

Can't remember, but was Farah one of the rescue horses?
Bet the little mare remembered you and Rhea.

Thanks for posting that, Erik.
Very interesting.
Barb

hardyjim · Post by **hardyjim** » Fri Jul 15, 2011 4:37 pm

Some of those pics look familiar!

Nice Trachy,Chammy and Castor in the Med house!

One of the best Gardens anywhere!

TerdalFarm · Post by **TerdalFarm** » Fri Jul 15, 2011 5:24 pm

Jim,
your photos from last year were part our our inspiration to visit the Shaw. I just had to see that double coconut for myself!
We passed on the med. house as it was full of screaming children.

We also went to the St. Louis Zoo, as you did. Lots of pot-planted queen palms.
In the "rivers" exhibit, I did find a clump of Sabal minor that must have overwintered in the ground as I saw leaf damage. One was flowering (photo 1 below; flower barely visible in this cell phone pic.). I did not see seedlings. I am curious how far north these can naturalize.

Barb,
I thought of you when I saw the gorgeous sealing wax palm. That Roystonea was huge, but I fear it is not long for the world as it is pushing against the ceiling. Kind of hard to take a few yards off the top of a palm tree.

The Chamaedorea were indeed all in shady spots and looked great. My C. ernesti-augusti and geonoformis are on the front porch and so in shade, but still look terrible. I don't think they can take my heat and so will be coming indoors today.

Photo 2 is of a talk at the conference about encouraging cultivation of C. ernesti-augusti in Belize for the international floral trade. Aside to Jesse: the speaker, a botanist from Kew, is the scientist I am trying to get you to intern for in Belize at the Belize Botanic Garden.

Photo 3 shows W chatting with other botanists at the end-of-conference party on a roof top. We kind of liked spending time in a city for a change. Maybe we'll get used to the city/apartment lifestyle.

Photo 4 shows W enjoying a free sample of St. Louis beer (hey, when in Rome...).

--Erik

<table style="width:auto;"><tr><td><a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/p ... site"><img src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-w_iQ ... AG0772.jpg" height="640" width="383" /></a></td></tr><tr><td style="font-family:arial,sans-serif; font-size:11px; text-align:right">From <a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/terdalfarm ... site">July 2011</a></td></tr></table>

<table style="width:auto;"><tr><td><a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/B ... site"><img src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-jlgE ... AG0780.jpg" height="383" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td style="font-family:arial,sans-serif; font-size:11px; text-align:right">From <a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/terdalfarm ... site">July 2011</a></td></tr></table>

<table style="width:auto;"><tr><td><a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/B ... site"><img src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-OJ95 ... AG0788.jpg" height="383" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td style="font-family:arial,sans-serif; font-size:11px; text-align:right">From <a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/terdalfarm ... site">July 2011</a></td></tr></table>

<table style="width:auto;"><tr><td><a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/F ... site"><img src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-B5er ... AG0790.jpg" height="400" width="239" /></a></td></tr><tr><td style="font-family:arial,sans-serif; font-size:11px; text-align:right">From <a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/terdalfarm ... site">July 2011</a></td></tr></table>

lucky1 · Post by **lucky1** » Fri Jul 15, 2011 6:11 pm

the gorgeous sealing wax palm

Yup, and that reminded me how hard I worked to try to get sealing wax palm seeds to germinate this past winter.
"Plant them in hot mud", I was told.
So I did, and situated them next to the continually-on (in winter) woodstove in the basement.
Damn...not one came up.

Re the tall Roystonea, if I'm not mistaken, that happened over in England too (maybe @ Kew?).
A tall Trachy was outgrowing the palm house roof and they said it "will be removed"...aaaaargh!!!!

I bet your Chamaes will do better near shower/kitchen humidity.
Read elsewhere that your Trachies aren't liking your heat...they're not happy at 100 F, especially if there's wind.

Glad you two enjoyed your trip.
When's your son back from Spain? Hoping for more photos!

Barb

sidpook · Post by **sidpook** » Wed Jul 20, 2011 6:30 pm

Lovely pics! You guys look great too! Thanks for sharing. Hope all is well!
Mike

hardyjim · Post by **hardyjim** » Thu Jul 21, 2011 8:28 am

Did you see the giant Reed grass(Arundo donax)at the zoo?

That **** was already like 15' tall in July last year!

TerdalFarm · Post by **TerdalFarm** » Thu Jul 21, 2011 9:01 am

Yes, it was good.
All over Bixby, Arundo has come back despite our -22 F temps (but ground did not freeze). I wish I had planted a bunch here a few years ago. I tried bamboo in that spot of the yard and I could never keep it alive.

(sidpook: you know the area I had in mind)

sidpook · Post by **sidpook** » Thu Jul 21, 2011 8:10 pm

TerdalFarm wrote:Yes, it was good.
All over Bixby, Arundo has come back despite our -22 F temps (but ground did not freeze). I wish I had planted a bunch here a few years ago. I tried bamboo in that spot of the yard and I could never keep it alive.
(sidpook: you know the area I had in mind)

Gotta love that area....

PS as we say in NJ..."I gotch'a bamboo right heah!""

hardyjim · Post by **hardyjim** » Fri Jul 22, 2011 9:34 am

I like the pic with the Arch in the background-
looks like a rooftop hotel in the Central west end.

Mike

Fogettaboutit!

TerdalFarm · Post by **TerdalFarm** » Fri Jul 22, 2011 12:08 pm

Jim, you know the city well!
The conference was at the chase park in the central west end. And the party was on the roof. (We stayed at the comfort inn down the street as we aren't the rich sort of botanists

)
Mike, let me know by FB msg if I can call this weekend.

PalmsNorth.com

Shaw botanical garden's climatron in St. Louis, MO, USA

Shaw botanical garden's climatron in St. Louis, MO, USA

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