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Botany

A Collection for the Ages

A Collection for the Ages

Dr. Carlyle A. Luer is considered one of the most prolific botanists of both this and the previous centuries. A key founder of Selby Gardens, Luer, 95, has described and illustrated more than 3,000 new orchid species. This feat is just an estimate as the exact number...

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“It wasn’t me.” – Seymour, the corpse flower

“It wasn’t me.” – Seymour, the corpse flower

Seymour, one of our two mature Amorphophallus titanum ("Corpse flower") plants fooled us in thinking he was going to create an inflorescence (flower) rather than create a leaf as its partner, Audrey, has done. Alas, Seymour won't be treating us to his odorous blossom...

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Intern from Brazil Visits Selby Gardens

Intern from Brazil Visits Selby Gardens

Selby Gardens welcomes our new Brazilian Intern, Carla Royer, who arrived last week and will be here until October 2 . Carla is one of Selby Garden's Curator of the Orchid Research Center, Antonio Toscano de Brito, Ph.D.'s former MSc students and is now a PhD...

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Queen of the Night Blooming

Queen of the Night Blooming

Our Selenicereus "queen of the night" cactus once again made its annual bloom well worth the wait. The conditions over the last year have been ideal for a spectacular blooming for the cactus,  covering a live oak in front of our Botany building, which typically occurs...

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Botanical Body Art

Botanical Body Art

  It stands to reason that people who work at Selby Gardens would be inordinately attached to flowers and plants. In fact, some even have their favorite botanical specimens permanently etched on their bodies. Botanical tattoos allow them to carry their passion...

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Genetics Research Reveals the Secrets of Orchids

A renowned orchid expert recently showed a group of Selby Gardens staff, volunteers and guests examples of how advances in genetics have expanded our  understanding of orchids—their origin, their specialization and relationships between various orchid species. Dr....

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Remembering Ann Esworthy

Remembering Ann Esworthy

Long time Selby Gardens supporter Ann Esworthy, 97, passed away Friday, November 3, 2017. A volunteer who contributed more than 7,000 hours over 41 years, Ann continued to mount herbarium specimens in the Botany department until just weeks prior to her passing. In...

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Orchids & Ecuador

Orchids & Ecuador

In early November 2017, Selby Gardens’ Director of Botany, Bruce Holst, traveled to Ecuador at the invitation of a scientific and technical institute in the nation’s capital city, Quito. Instituto Superior Tecnológico Yavirac, known at Institute Yavirac in English,...

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Common Varieties of Orchids

Common Varieties of Orchids

Selby Gardens has spent more than four decades amassing the best scientifically documented collection of wild orchids in the world. The bulk of these orchids have been wild-collected, with excellent representation of the rare, the gorgeous, and the unusual. In fact,...

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