🧪October is a great time for a good scare, but it's always scary to think about how many plants are on the brink of extinction. Our Plants of Concern program is working to save endangered/threatened plants. 📸 Lysimachia borealis flowers (left) & seed capsule (right) by Carol Freeman; Bruce Patterson

🧪Andrew's PhD research is asking questions about gene flow between endangered Ecuadorian Magnolia plants to improve their reforestation & conservation, & understanding the pollinators that move pollen between trees is a key component.

Species highlight! Earleaf False Foxglove (Agalinis auriculata). Learn more about rare plant monitoring in Illinois at plantsofconcern.org. This video was formulated during a science communication workshop with @science-irl.bsky.social.

Congrats to Pat Herendeen! Pat received the Asa Gray award from the American Society of Plant Taxonomists, given to an individual for outstanding accomplishments pertinent to the goals of the Society. ASPT organized "to foster, encourage & promote education & research in the field of plant taxonomy"

Congratulations to Chicago Botanic Garden postdoctoral researcher Nora Gavin-Smyth, recipient of a 2026 Walder Foundation Biota Award. Her project focuses on Impatiens, which diversified in East Africa with a pattern of closely related, co‑occurring species and rapidly evolving floral forms.

🧪Ever wonder what gingko, elm, and limber pine trees have in common? For us, they are all trees in our bonsai collection with larger conservation stories.

Today we are celebrating #WorldLakeDay! The Natural Areas team conducts water sampling tests to monitor the health of our Chicago Botanic Garden lakes. Our lakes contain an abundance of life and testing nutrient levels and water clarity informs how we keep the lakes healthy.

BarnebyLives: An R package to create #herbarium specimen labels and clean spreadsheets New in #AppsPlantSci from Reed Benkendorf & Jeremie Fant doi.org/10.1002/aps3... @negauneeinstitute.bsky.social #botany #herbaria #taxonomy #PlantScience

🧪Some plants that are rare in Illinois are much more common in northern states. Why do we protect them in Illinois if they are abundant elsewhere? The Plants of Concern program at the Chicago Botanic Garden monitors populations of rare and endangered plants to help maintain biodiversity in Illinois.

🧬 #PlantConservationWeek 🌿 The interface between rare plant management and genetics: conserving Pitcher’s thistle (Cirsium pitcheri) in the Great Lakes region, USA by Noel Pavlovic and co-authors. #freeaccess article 👉 doi.org/rh6r @negauneeinstitute.bsky.social #PlantScience

Thank you for posting!! So excited for this to be in the special edition 🌱

Annals of Botany@annbot.bsky.social · 2mo ago

🧬 #PlantConservationWeek 🌿 Using pedigree tracking of the ex situ metacollection of Amorphophallus titanum (Araceae) to identify challenges to maintaining genetic diversity in the botanical community by O. Murrell @ogmurrell.bsky.social et al. #freeaccess article 👉 doi.org/pft5 #PlantScience

🧬 #PlantConservationWeek 🌿 Using pedigree tracking of the ex situ metacollection of Amorphophallus titanum (Araceae) to identify challenges to maintaining genetic diversity in the botanical community by O. Murrell @ogmurrell.bsky.social et al. #freeaccess article 👉 doi.org/pft5 #PlantScience

"What if, instead of feeling pressure to present a pristine lawn, people were encouraged to act together to promote pollinators by planting patches of native flowering plants?" Northwestern and Garden Ph.D. student Libby Shafer is investigating the 'culture of lawns'!

4/ Read more in our new interactive on the plantings and what they mean for the environment. — Reported by Cecilia Luce, Christina Lin and @ryaninevanston.bsky.social

This sapling is from California. The Chicago Botanic Garden planted it on campus — and it's surviving

Quercus wislizeni, the interior live oak, is not a species normally found in Illinois. The evergreen tree — though resilient to fluctuating temperatures, elevations and...

apps.dailynorthwestern.com

2/ The planting is part of a Chicago Botanic Garden initiative that brought 13 samples to campus. “The way that we’re thinking about it is, climate change is coming … How do we best prepare here so that we’re ready to conserve species in our region?” said the Garden’s Natalie Love.

1/ Last spring, this California-native interior live oak was planted atop an underground hot water pipe on Northwestern’s campus in hopes that its warmth would prevent the tree’s roots from freezing in the bitter Evanston winter. It worked. 🧵

Sometimes the forest asks us to pause. Stop for a moment to watch this timelapse of a 27-hour flowering event unfolding in less than 90 seconds, narrated by PhD candidate Andrew Davies. Learn more about floral thermogenesis in Ecuadorian Magnolia in a recent publication.

The Negaunee Institute for Plant Conservation and Action celebrates nature conservation every day, but especially on #WorldNatureConservationDay! Celebrate science at the Chicago Botanic Garden with us! Learn more at the link in our bio. #NatureConservation #SaveOurPlanet

We are again hosting students at the Chicago Botanic Garden for our 10-week Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation, providing college students with hands-on experience in real-world research.

Congratulations to all the students recognized at the Program in Plant Biology and Conservation graduation celebration!  Student research spanned the globe, from urban spaces of the Chicago region and Midwest prairies to Tanzania, the Peruvian Amazon, and the Andes of Ecuador.

We are kicking off 2026 Pollinator Week with questions from Chicago Botanic Garden field trip visitors! What questions do you have about pollinators? Let us know!  #PollinatorWeek #Insects #Pollinators

Congratulations to Rew Kim, a first-year Master’s student in our @chicagobotanic / @northwesternu Plant Biology & Conservation program!

Congratulations to Vic Martinez Mercado, a Ph.D. student in our @chicagobotanic / @northwesternu Plant Biology & Conservation program! Vic received a grant from the American Society of Plant Taxonomists to support her work studying the genome and genetic population structure of Asimina tetramera.

Congratulations to Kelby Anderson, first-year master’s student in our @chicagobotanic / @northwesternu Plant Biology & Conservation Graduate Program, for being awarded the Sue Martin and Myrna Steinkamp Grant from the Colorado Native Plant Society!

Congratulations to Maddie Sadler, a graduate of the @chicagobotanic / @northwesternu Plant Biology & Conservation program! Maddie successfully defended their thesis, “Asteraceae species richness along Minnesota Prairie Corridor: What types of prairies harbor the most diversity?”

The persistence of healthy, genetically diverse native plant populations depends on successful reproduction. But sometimes, our rare and exceptional plant species need an assist!

Congratulations to Evana James, a third year Ph.D. student in our @chicagobotanic / @northwesternu Plant Biology & Conservation Graduate Program, for being awarded the @gcasholarships Corliss Knapp Engle Scholarship in Horticulture.

Oro, one of the corpse flowers (Amorphophallus titanum) in @chicagobotanic’s collection, is currently blooming in the Tropical Greenhouse. It will bloom for between 24 and 36 hours- come check it out while you can!

Congratulations to our graduate, Marne Quigg, for earning her master’s degree from the @ChicagoBotanic/@NorthwesternU Graduate Program in Plant Biology and Conservation! Marne did her research thesis on the restoration of the American Elm, Ulmus americana, with a focus on its genetic structure.

Congratulations to Dr. Rory Schiafo! Rory successfully defended her PhD dissertation, Plant Diversity and Community Assembly in the Restoration of Midwestern Forests, in April. Rory studied woodland restoration, with a particular interest in the impacts of light availability on plant communities.