Gardens Blog
Marie Selby Botanical Gardens
The land mass early European explorers discovered when stepping off ships some five hundred years ago would be frankly, unrecognizable to many Americans living today— perhaps no part of our nation experienced as much ecological loss as the South. The great longleaf pine forests have all but disappeared, lost to logging and development.
Sarasota tends to be a pretty tropical place, but we can have relatively bad winters, and freezes are not unheard of, even along the coast. One of the groups of plants hardest hit by cold winters are palms; they tend not to show the damage for many weeks to months after the freeze, and they are slow to recover—a result of growing just one leaf at a time.
Visit the Gardens to see and learn more about these incredible flowers or visit our botany blog for additional details.
Frangipani, Hawaiian Lei Flower (Apocynaceae) Origin: Mexico to South America Plumerias are some of the most popular trees of the tropics, famous for their gorgeous flowers. If you have ever been presented with a lei neckless, they were most likely plumerias! Almost...
Uncarina grandidieri (Pedaliaceae) Origin: Madagascar Our featured plant this go-around is pretty unique. Coming from an odd family and an odd island, Uncarina looks like a cotton plant made out of velvet with large yellow felt petunias glued on it. The leaves, when...
Amorphophallus titanum (Araceae) Origin: Sumatra, Indonesia For those that don’t know, Amorphophallus titanum has a reputation for being the largest and smelliest flower in the world. And while the term “flower” isn’t exactly correct (more on that in a minute) the...
Aechmea bracteata (Bromeliaceae) Origin: Mexico south to Colombia & Venezuela Selby Gardens’ Botany Department just returned from a three-week expedition to Belize, with the purpose of observing and recording epiphyte diversity around the country, covering a...
Dendrobium nobilis (Orchidaceae) Origin: Southeastern subtropical Asia The Marie Selby Botanical Gardens has a long association with the Orchidaceae. We are home to the Orchid Research Center, and have discovered or described hundreds and hundreds of new species to...
Strongylodon macrobotrys (Fabaceae) Origin: Philippines The geographical tropics, found in between the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn, is home to the most incredible array of animals, plants, and fungi found on the planet. The further you travel toward a pole from...
Brunfelsia densifolia (Solanaceae) Origin: Endemic to Puerto Rico We have featured the “Yesterday-today-tomorrow” Brunfelsias before, and mentioned there are two main groups of the genus. The yesterday-today-tomorrows have a pansy-like flower with a very short...
Eriobotrya japonica (Rosaceae) Origin: China Loquats are highly ornamental fruit trees with a strange habit of flowering in the winter. Most fruit trees in the Rosaceae (think peaches, plums, etc.) are from colder climates, and go completely dormant in the winter...