The Mesemb Section of the
U.S. Botanic Garden Production Facility
In Washington, D.C.
On Saturday, March 8, 2014 I visited the production greenhouses of the U.S. Botanic Garden in Washington, D.C. This is a large greenhouse complex that does the behind the scenes work for the U.S. Botanic Garden in downtown Washington, D.C. The production greenhouses are also a rescue facility for plants confiscated at various custom facilities around the country. The production facility is one very large glass enclosed structure, divided into 10 separate greenhouses, each holding a different type of plants, depending on their environmental requirements. Here's an aerial view of the facility.
One of the 10 greenhouse divisions within the facility houses cacti and other succulents. Within the C&S division the various benches hold groups of related plants. A third of one of the long benches is home of their mesemb collection, which is shown below.
There were a lot of interesting cacti and succulents in the greenhouse and I'll try to post a few more photos over the next couple of weeks.
Room to fit a lot more plants on the bench! I have been to areas of Kew Gardens not open to the public which is a treat. Kew is great anyway.
ReplyDeleteHi Alain! I visited Kew in 1968 when I was living in Germany. I bet it is wonderful now. Since I am also very much interested in all types of woody plants (trees and shrubs) that is where Kew would be so great for me to visit. The U.S. Botanic Gardens in Washington, D.C. is actually rather small. They has a nice conservatory but with mainly tropical plants. Their cactus and succulent section is quite small. The production greenhouses that I did visit are much larger than the Public Conservatory Greenhouse. They only open the production greenhouses to the pubic one day a year. It a great day not only to see the plants but they have their staff available to talk to. That's especially nice for me because I know some of the staff from my time at the university. I'd love to visit Kew again, but I would also love to visit Mexico and South Africa. Sometimes you don't get everything you want. Hope your weather is nice, we had 18cm of snow yesterday. :-(
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