Marie Selby Botanical Gardens was recently awarded a CSSA (Cactus & Succulent Society of America) conservation grant to safeguard a federally endangered cactus species, Harrisia aboriginum, within four counties of Southwest Florida. The species, colloquially known...
Gardens Blog
Marie Selby Botanical Gardens
Botany
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...
“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...
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...
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...
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...
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....
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...
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,...
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,...