A trip to MoBot

From: Steve Marak <samarak at arachne.uark.edu> on 1997.09.25 at 16:00:45(1343) Last Friday, Cathy and I had a chance to visit the Missouri Botanical Garden in St. Louis again. It's always a pleasure to see the gardens, look around in the aroid greenhouse, and visit Tom Croat and Petra Malesevich, who are wonderful hosts. This trip was at Tom's invitation for a special treat, a chance to meet Peter and Jill (Gill?) Boyce before they traveled to Miami for the fall IAS meeting, where Peter will speak. We arrived early Friday afternoon, and after a trip or two across the gardens in pursuit, caught up with Tom and Peter in Tom's office. There we had a chance to look at "Genera of Araceae", and I heartily second Dewey's praise. The pictures are excellent and many are of seldom-pictured species, the format is clear and logical, and I found it hard not to stop and browse the text. +More >From there we went to a short seminar by Peter on Pothos and related genera and some of the issues in the taxonomy of that part of the family. These are the true Pothos and close relations, rather than the pothos of florists and garden centers, which is almost always an Epipremnum. Jill joined us at the seminar, Tom's wife Pat arrived shortly after, and we finished off Friday with dinner and a little sight-seeing. Saturday morning Cathy and I had a chance to spend a couple of hours in the aroid research greenhouse, which is always a treat. Living in USDA zone 6, with limited greenhouse space myself, seeing all those aroids, mostly very tropical, some huge, indoors and doing very well is remarkable. The weather was excellent, cool enough that even with the high humidity of the greenhouse it was comfortable. Looking at living plants is always educational as well as esthetic, and I always come away with questions (which will probably show up in future notes). Many genera are represented - Alocasia, Dieffenbachia, Xanthosoma, Raphidophora, Aglaonema, Scindapsus, Typhonium, Pseudodracontium, and on and on - and the Amorphophallus and Dracontium forests are particularly impressive (huge petioles, often arising from relatively small pots), but in Philodendron and Anthurium the diversity is amazing. This isn't surprising, since much of Tom's work is in these areas, but knowing that doesn't reduce the impact of seeing the plants. Peter referred to Anthurium as a "megagenus" due to the large number of species, and moving down the benches from one Anthurium to the next (not forgetting to look overhead) it's clear how appropriate the term is. On such a short trip we didn't have much chance to explore the rest of the gardens, but we did spend a few minutes in the Climatron. I think the butterfly exhibit is new since our last visit (I didn't see the Passifloras, but there must be some). There are some candidates for the Largest Pistia competition floating around in there, too - those things almost were the size of heads of lettuce (and I don't mean the miniature varieties). Saturday evening Tom and Pat hosted a party for the Boyces at their home. Even without the other landmarks we'd have known it was Tom's house, because the sidewalk to the front door was lined with Amorphophallus konjac. Tom's house is surrounded by trees which create moderate shade at ground level, and his konjacs - compared with mine which are in full sun - have much larger leaves (same height, about twice the diameter) and just look happier. I'm going to move mine. It was over too soon, of course. The guests of honor (who seemed to have adjusted to the 6 hour time difference very well in just 48 hours) and Tom were to leave Sunday for a whirlwind aroid tour on the way to Miami, and we had to return to the mundane world of computers and technology. Steve -- Steve Marak -- samarak@arachne.uark.edu

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