Darwin was a gardener

Maybe you think it's spring — I don't, I just looked out through ice-glazed windows at half a foot of new snow — and you're thinking about the garden. Here's an idea: you don't need to take a trip to the Galapagos to study evolution, you can do it right in your backyard. The New York Botanical Garden is opening a new exhibit, called Darwin's Garden.

In all, the tour is 33 stops, spread throughout about half of the garden's 250 acres. Visitors who enter the exhibition through the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory will encounter a replica of a room in Darwin's house, designed so they can look through the window, as he did, to a profusion of plants and bright flowers: hollyhocks, flax and of course primroses, what Todd Forrest, the garden's vice president for horticulture, calls "a typical British garden." On a table stands a tray holding quills, brushes, sealing wax and tweezers, the kinds of simple tools Darwin used to conduct his world-shaking research.

Brilliant! Evolution is not something that requires exotic, out of the way locales and weird, obscure organisms to study — it's everywhere.

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This is good; I usually need some sort of incentive to go to arboretums (arboreta-?) and such - what can I say, I'm an animal guy - but I never regret having gone. It's a similar sentiment with New York City.

I'll be there! I graduated from MN but just started grad school in NY. What wonderful timing for the exhibit! I only life a few miles south of there! Sounds amazing.

Tickets are $20.00 and the exhibit goes until 15 June.

My first introduction to evolution was marigolds. I vaguely remember my dad telling me when I was a kid that someone was trying to develop a white marigold. He said that the way to do that was to grow yellow marigolds, then take the seeds from the ones that were the lightest color and use them for the next generation. It sounded so simple, even I could have done it.

My first introduction to evolution was marigolds. I vaguely remember my dad telling me when I was a kid that someone was trying to develop a white marigold. He said that the way to do that was to grow yellow marigolds, then take the seeds from the ones that were the lightest color and use them for the next generation. It sounded so simple, even I could have done it.

I think Burpee Seed Company paid a very tidy sum to the person who developed the first white marigold cultivar, "French Vanilla," back in the late 90's.

Good review in the New York Times on Friday. Will stop in on my way to or back from Philadelphia. We need more stuff like this to counter the crap we commented on in the "Impeccable Logic" video from yesterday. All calmed down people; I can emote just as passionately for my friend Charles Darwin!

Spring? Man, it's bright and sunny here in North Carolina, and the temperature is increasing to the upper 70s--that's SUMMER, baby!

[does a little happy-dance, which admittedly he will probably not be doing a few months from now when it reaches 110 with 99% humidity...)

Of course, gardens mostly display artificial, rather than natural selection, but it was the analogy between the two which led to Darwin's discovery...

do they have a tangled bank?

This is ridiculous. I just looked out my window after reading this. We have snow in the Cities as well. Not even an inch, but it's still goddamn snow. Then in less than a month we'll get to complain about how hot and humid it is.

I hope I'll have a chance to see this.

While the exhibit deals exclusively with floriculture, I will nevertheless sieze this opportunity to repost my comment from a few days ago on the vaccination thread, since it's more relevent here:

"My own suggestion in the search for improved science education is an increase in gardens attached to schools and their further integration with the science curriculum. Children can learn about evolution through the study of plant defense mechanisms; apply the scientific method through, e.g., undertaking experiments in different pest control methods; and gain valuable skills in a practical area and in working collaboratively more generally. The gardens also supply fresh food to the school, which is never a bad thing. There are several such programs in my area, and they seem to be remarkably successful in all of these areas. Just one thought."

I really need to take advantage of something that's so ridiculously close to my own back yard (I think it takes maybe 10 minutes for me to get to the Bronx Zoo and the Botanical Garden). Will you be considering a trip out here for this, PZ?

Why do some plants (ivy comes to mind) sport so easily, while others seem more stable? Plant books note this, but don't explain the science.

Half a foot? Aw, poor baby.

We just got 24 inches in 24 hours in Anchorage. Which wouldn't be so hard to take, except that on Wednesday, it was almost 70 degrees. The last of the winter snow had just disappeared from the lawn. And now we have two feet, with below-freezing temperatures for the next few days at least.

It's so cool that you mention this Darwin exhibition. I actually did some work for the NYBG for this very exhibit. I did the animation for some flip books that should be available to children who attend. It was a great job. Not only because of the generous and kind person who commissioned me but, also because its a fun way to promote science.

#3 Cheezits wrote

He said that the way to do that was to grow yellow marigolds, then take the seeds from the ones that were the lightest color and use them for the next generation. It sounded so simple, even I could have done it.

This reminds me a story of agricultural selection gone wrong: in Russia, farmers would eat and sell the best, biggest potatoes (which tasted the best and fetched the highest price), and save the smaller ones to plant. As a result, the potatoes became increasingly small over time, so much so that when McDonalds came to Russia in 1990, they had to first import larger potatoes in order to make their fries.

Yay!

I'm leaving Central Pennsyltucky very, very, very, oh-thank-Ceiling-Cat soon to take some last few comp sci classes at Columbia this summer and then (hopefully) get a job. I've already bought an apartment in Chelsea that has, get this, a BACKYARD, and I'm busily distracting myself from term papers by planning what I'm going to plant.

So, yeah, I'm definitely gonna have to check this out.

Yo MAJeff, if you're around: do you have any Amaranth recipes? Especially the leaves; I'm finding more grain recipes online than leaves ones, although I'm guessing spinach recipes can be appropriated. Suggestions on other pretty edible things would also be appreciated.

New York is quite exotic and out of the way for many of us old-worlders.
Indeed, Harold, but the point is that you can study biology in your back garden. You don't need to go to the Galapagos or New York. I must have been a bit of a nerd as a kid as I still remember organizing "field expeditions" in my back garden. I have David Attenborough, David Bellamy and Gerrit Van Gelderen to blame. They collectively got me hooked.

By ShemAndShaun (not verified) on 26 Apr 2008 #permalink

I look out through my front and rear windows and there are wildflowers aplenty for a natural, peaceful view of my yard. Huge buttercups, dandelions, and paintbrush are the main attractions. The johnson grass, however, is up to my knees, and I am waiting for the neighbors to complain. It just looks so natural this way, and it is very pretty, though uncultivated. I am wrestling now with calling for a brush hog, or posting a sign that says "Texas Natural Weed Preserve - Do not mow."

Falyne, if you have dandelions you can use them for salad -= just the leaves. Slip a knife at a shallow angle into the root and the rosette of leaves comes off. They're bitter, like endive only more so. I like them with a dressing heavy in vinegar and salt. And maybe eat them with bread for relief. They're rich in Vitamin A.

You can also make mashed potatoes and after mashing them, stir in dandelion leaves for some colour and contrast. They don't seem quite so bitter that way. I was told this was "bubble and squeak" but I think the traditional recipe is made with leftover cabbage.

You can go on harvesting them as long as they are young and tender. When they bloom, they become even more bitter and it's time for your lettuce to be up.

Nice blog.

Dan Pinto #13

Do you mean you made a flip-book of evolution, with a transitional form on each page kind of thing? That's fantastic! I think simple things like that are really great for getting kids used to the idea that small steps can accumulate to big results.

I looked on your site, but the link only goes to the NYBG :( Is there any way for those of us who can't make it to New York to see your work?

hollyhocks, flax and of course primroses, what Todd Forrest, the garden's vice president for horticulture, calls "a typical British garden."

I don't know what gardens Todd's been visiting, but my 'typical british garden' is mostly 18 foot Leylandii, designed to stop the neighbours I never speak to knowing what I have in my garden. If they're reading this, I'll let them into a secret - it's one really out of control Bramble Bush and a lot of footballs the local kids are too scared to try to get back. Welcome to suburban London.

Hematite #20

The flip bookb aren't ones of transition between species, sadly. That would have been really fun. Instead they show the interaction between species. There are two. One shows a moth feeding on an orchid with it's long tongue. The other shows a sparrow feeding on a bird of paradise flower.

I don't have them online and I don't know how my employer would feel about putting them online.