The response is almost always the same: awe, at the instant and total immersion in a jungle of brightly colored flowers, exotic fruits, and every imaginable shade and texture of green. When visitors step into the tropical unit in the IES greenhouse - whether they be students on a class trip, families on a weekend outing, or tourists enjoying Hudson Valley highlights - they can't believe their eyes.
These visitors quickly understand, however, that there's a lot more than just lush growth going on here. They see what IES educators, researchers and gardeners have appreciated for so long - that this facility is at once a giant classroom, a controlled environment for ecological research, and a nursery where plants are propagated under the healthiest of conditions for Institute display gardens and for sale in The Ecology Shop.
There are over 1300 species of plants in the greenhouse. Some 50 of them make up the "Economic Botany Trail". Did you know that ginger comes from the rhizomes (underground stems) of a plant called Zingiber officinale that grows in tropical, southeastern Asia? Or that the seeds of Bixa orellana provide a dye that is used not only by the indigenous peoples of tropical America to repel mosquitoes but also as coloring for lipstick, margarine and other consumer goods? Following the Economic Botany Trail and identifying the numbered plants is a favorite activity for families visiting the greenhouse, and a way to learn first-hand how plants provide us with food, medicine and other commercially important materials.
IES educators have developed a curriculum that makes use of all that the greenhouse offers. "Plant Power", for students in kindergarten through 8th grade, involves activities and hands-on investigations that teach about photosynthesis, pollination and plant growth; students learn about experimental variables, for example, when they measure bean plants grown in different substrates and under different light conditions. During the period covered by this report, 2,318 students, in 80 classes and home-school groups, enhanced their understanding and appreciation of plants through this greenhouse component of the IES Ecology Field Program.
While ecologists do the majority of their field work outdoors, there are cases when they must control and monitor experimental conditions; in these instances they move their research into the greenhouse. In one such project, part of the Baltimore Ecosystem Study, IES graduate student Helen Dijkstra recorded growth in 180 pots planted with different configurations of vines and red maple seedlings. Her goal was to understand the potential effects of competition between vines and native trees on plant regrowth in gaps in urban forests. An experiment like this can best be done "under glass".
David Bulkeley, Manager of the Greenhouse Complex, and Rebecca Curtis, Greenhouse Technician II, are doing their own study in the greenhouse as well. Since 1991, they have been applying Integrated Pest Management (IPM) principles and practices to control the mealybugs, spider mites, whiteflies and other arthropods that are the scourge of greenhouse managers everywhere. By introducing predatory beetles, larvae and mites, by cutting away damaged and diseased leaves and by treating localized infestations with alcohol and insecticidal soap, they have achieved not only a model IPM system, but also a clean environment that is healthy for greenhouse guests and plants alike.
