The New York Botanical Garden - Overview

After weeks of heavy work, Ryan and I took a couple of days off and had a long weekend in New York City. Friday, April 29th, we visited The New York Botanical Garden which was impressive and huge. The New York Botanical Garden is sort of like the Ground Zero of the Chestnut blight. The blight was first discovered in chestnuts growing in the adjacent Bronx Zoo. It was a mycologist from The New York Botantical Gardens, William Murrill, who uncovered the cause.

One of my favorite parts of the gardens is the large section of native forest they have preserved. In the Appalachians, the chestnuts are ever hopeful. When the blight kills the tree’s trunk, the roots send off a new shoot and tries again. Having seen so many examples in the Appalachians, I fully expected to see some baby chestnuts in the native forest section, still giving it another go a century later. Alas, I didn’t see any.

That doesn’t mean I left the park disappointed! There was so much to see and absorb. We were there at a good time to see a lot of blooms – cherries, daffodils, tulips, crabapples. And I learned a number of new trees, especially maples.

Some shots from the day:

I loved the bark of this Austrian Black Pine (Pinus nigra ssp. nigra)

Caucasian wingnut (Pterocarya fraxinifolia) – Ryan calls this one “The Rush Limbaugh Tree” : )

The Conservatory

I liked how you could see what this dead leaf was supposed to look like.

One of the new maples I was introduced to – Norway maple (Acer platanoides)

I loved this flower because it looked like a big pink pinecone.

Silhouettes on Orange Gyro (Heliconia latispatha) Leaf

I have some more posts on the gardens to come. In the meantime, more pictures of our visit to The New York Botanical Garden can be found on my Flickr site.

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