Missouri Botanical Garden Bulletin Fall 2012 Garden Hours the Garden Is Open 9 A.M
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M I S S OUR I B O T A N IC A L G A R D E N bulletinFall 2012 Vol. 100, No. 4 www.mobot.org As a Garden member, did you know that: • You get free admission for two adults and all children 12 and under to the Shaw Nature Reserve and Sophia M. Sachs Butterfly House? • You get free admission to the Children’s Garden all day Tuesday, President’s and from 9 a.m. to noon, Wednesday and Saturday? (Closed November–March) photo by Koraley Northen Comment • Special members’ days entitle you to exclusive events and activities, By all measurements, the Garden’s Lantern as well as free tram rides and discounts in the gift shop and café? Festival: Art by Day, Magic by Night exhibit this • You get free or reduced price admission to nearly 270 botanical summer has been a tremendous success. What’s gardens and arboreta in the U.S. and Canada? even more remarkable is how successful it was These are only a few of the benefits of membership. If you upgrade in spite of the extreme heat. The entire region your membership, you get even more! Visit us at www.mobot.org/ weathered temperatures reaching into the triple membership, e-mail [email protected], or call (314) 577-5118. digits, but that didn’t stop more than 100,000 visitors from heading to the Garden to experience Board of Trustees the spectacular sets lit up for evening display. Officers Bert D. Condie III Lise Herren Chair Prof. Sir Peter R. Crane FRS Sheila Hoffmeister Nearly 6,000 people joined or renewed their W. Stephen Maritz L. B. Eckelkamp, Jr. Leslie P. Hood memberships during the festival as well. This type Vice Chair M. Peter Fischer Maureen R. Jennings Cheryl P. Morley Marilyn R. Fox Ellen E. Jones of support helps make it possible to continue our President Robert R. Hermann Janet B. Lange mission to discover and protect the world’s plant Peter S. Wyse Jackson, M.A., Edward D. Higgins Mary V. Longrais Ph.D., FLS Paula M. Keinath Parker B. McMillan biodiversity. Some of that work is being done in President Emeritus Rosalyn H. Kling Isabelle C. Morris places like Bolivia; the Garden’s Madidi Project, Peter H. Raven, Ph.D. Robert E. Kresko Gale Murphy June M. Kummer Jacquelin S. Naunheim led by Dr. Peter Jørgensen, was recently profiled Members Lucy L. Lopata Mary Neher Mrs. Walter F. Ballinger II James S. McDonnell III Anita D. O’Connell in the journal Science (see page 7). Catherine B. Berges Helen E. Nash, M.D. Sue B. Oertli A great deal of work to preserve biodiversity Daniel A. Burkhardt Evelyn Edison Newman Sue M. Rapp Arnold W. Donald Roy Pfautch Susan N. Rowe takes place right here at the Garden. One of Lelia J. Farr Mabel L. Purkerson, M.D. Sammy Ann Ruwitch the most striking examples was the blooming Sharon D. Fiehler Lucianna G. Ross* Marsha J. Rusnack Robert R. Hermann, Jr. Anthony F. Sansone, Sr. Nancy L. Sauerhoff of not one, but two Amorphophallus titanum David M. Hollo Joseph F. Shaughnessy Ron Schlapprizzi plants (see page 6) this summer. The species is David W. Kemper Robert B. Smith III Susie Littmann Schulte Charles E. Kopman Nora R. Stern Kathleen Smith threatened by habitat loss in its native Sumatra; Hal A. Kroeger William K.Y. Tao, D.Sc. Celeste D. Sprung by growing them here we can raise awareness of Carolyn W. Losos George E. Thoma, M.D. Carol A. Squires Daniel J. Ludeman Jack E. Thomas Susan Squires Goldschmidt this issue. Cynthia S. Peters Jane S. Tschudy Brent St. John Nicholas L. Reding John K. Wallace, Jr. Nora R. Stern Although Lantern Festival has drawn to Steven C. Roberts O. Sage Wightman III Elizabeth Teasdale a close and the spectacular set pieces have Marsha J. Rusnack Roma B. Wittcoff Jane S. Tschudy Rakesh Sachdev Douglas R. Wolter left the grounds, the Garden is continuing Scott C. Schnuck Honorary to celebrate its year of China. This October, Rex A. Sinquefield Surinder M. Sehgal, Ph.D. Botanical Garden Subdistrict of the Nancy R. Siwak Metropolitan Zoological Park and China will be the focus of the 59th annual Andrew C. Taylor Members’ Board Museum District Systematics Symposium, hosted here at the Eugene M. Toombs Laure B. Hullverson, President Theresa Loveless Mary Ella Alfring John C. McPheeters Garden. Systematics is the study of the diversity Ex Officio Ann M. Bowen Marcia B. Mellitz of life and the relationships among living things Rev. Lawrence Biondi, S. J. Eileen M. Carr Martin Schweig The Hon. Charlie A. Dooley Ann L. Case Pamela Shephard through time, and this year’s conference will Myrtle E.B. Dorsey, Ph.D. Sue Cohen Walter G. Stern Thomas F. George, Ph.D. Kristen Cornett Marjorie M. Weir highlight the Flora of China project, which is Benjamin H. Hulsey Andrea Craig Roy Jerome Williams, Sr. nearing completion after 25 years of work. The Hon. Francis G. Slay Jeanne P. Crawford Robert M. Williams, Jr. The Rt. Rev. George Wayne Smith Janelle Criscione Hillary B. Zimmerman Richard T. Sullivan, Jr. Angela Dalton Mark S. Wrighton, Ph.D. Jean C. Davis Non-voting advisory members: Mary Kay Denning Willie J. Meadows Members Emeriti Ellen Dubinsky Janice M. Nelson Dr. Peter Wyse Jackson, Clarence C. Barksdale Audrey Feuerbacher James H. Yemm President John H. Biggs Linda M. Finerty Francis Yueh Stephen F. Brauer Michael C. Heim William H.T. Bush Janice A. Hermann * deceased 2 Missouri Botanical Garden Bulletin Fall 2012 Garden Hours The Garden is open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. every day except December 25. Outdoor walking hours begin at 7 a.m. Wednesday and Saturday (except during signature events). Contents General Admission $8 ($4 for residents of St. Louis City and County); children 12 and under are free. 8 A Living Garden members receive free admission (based on level). Museum Technology transforms plant Children’s Garden: $5 for children; adults collections management. admitted free. ($3 for Garden members’ children.) Members’ children admitted free on Tuesdays. Open April through October. Contact Missouri Botanical Garden 10 The Art 4344 Shaw Blvd., St. Louis, MO 63110 (314) 577-5100 • www.mobot.org of Pruning Next to watering, it may be On the Cover: the most important thing you Japanese Garden in fall. do for your plants. Photo by Emily Amberger. Credits Editor: Jeff Ricker President’s Comment ..............2 Designer: Ellen Flesch ©2012 Missouri Botanical Garden News ..........................4 The Bulletin is a benefit of Garden membership. The BULLETIN (ISSN 0026-6507) is published Butterfly House .................. 11 quarterly by the Missouri Botanical Garden, 4344 Shaw Blvd., St. Louis, MO 63110. Shaw Nature Reserve ............. 12 Periodicals postage paid at St. Louis, MO Tributes ....................... 13 POSTMASTER: Please send address changes to Bulletin, Missouri Botanical Garden, Seen at the Garden ............... 16 P.O. Box 299, St. Louis, MO 63166-0299 Events ........................ 18 Sustainability Calendar ....................... 20 The Missouri Botanical Garden Bulletin is printed on paper containing 100% post-consumer recycled content, that is, paper that you might have placed in the recycle bin in your home or office this year. It is manufactured using wind power, a renewable energy source. We print locally, so there is no long-haul transportation, and we’re reinvesting in our community. We work hard to choose the most environmentally responsible paper around. So if you aren’t quite ready to go completely electronic with our online version, you can still enjoy your paper Bulletin in good conscience. Once you’ve read it, please recycle. To discover and share knowledge about plants and their environment photo by Kimberly Bretz in order to preserve and enrich life. – mission of the Missouri Botanical Garden News Monsanto Helps Fund World Flora Online The Missouri Botanical Garden has received a three-year, $3 million Representatives met at the Garden July 16–18 to discuss strategy for creating the World Flora online by 2020. gift from Monsanto Company to (photo by Kaitlyn Mauro) support its work on the development Consortium to Tackle World Flora Project of a World Flora Online. A three-day conference held July 16–18 at the Missouri Botanical The World Flora is an Garden hosted 34 individuals from botanical institutions in 17 countries international collaborative effort to who met to discuss how to achieve the goal of creating an online World develop the first-ever comprehensive Flora by 2020. At the conclusion of the meeting, attendees agreed on online resource for the world’s terms to establish a consortium encompassing all of the world’s major approximately 400,000 known botanical institutions to work together toward meeting this target of the plant species. Monsanto’s support Global Strategy for Plant Conservation. will fund the Garden’s contributions “I was very pleased by the optimism and sense of comradeship shared to this endeavor from 2012 to 2015. by the attendees,” said Garden President Dr. Peter Wyse Jackson. “The proposed World Flora Online will be an invaluable, together to support the development “As the students conduct their accessible treatment of the world’s of a World Flora Online. They work, they educate their classmates, plant diversity that will act as a will be joined in this work by a making students in each of the three baseline to support global efforts to large number of other botanical schools aware of the research and identify, safeguard, sustainably use, institutions worldwide. ways to make their schools and lives and manage plants for humankind,” more sustainable.” said Garden President Dr. Peter Wells Fargo Supports Wyse Jackson.