Botanical



You are invited!

Join us on Friday, May 2, at 12:00p.m., when the Exploring Minnesota’s Natural History project staff present the program for the University Libraries’ “First Fridays” series at Andersen Library. Arcana of Nature: Natural Desire at the University of Minnesota…



The Survey: Year V

On the cover page of each Annual Report of The Geological and Natural History Survey of Minnesota, a list of the “Officers of the Survey” is printed. The first year, the only name that appears is that of State Geologist…



Patterns from Nature

So is this life as we know it now in Minnesota – life in the “polar vortex”? We are cold. We are exhausted by the sheer amount of effort required to put on so many layers and articles of clothing….


Friday Flora: Spring Semester?

This week marked the start of the spring semester at the University of Minnesota, yet as the temperature remained below zero in the Twin Cities for most of the week, it didn’t feel very spring-like on campus. Thanks to former…


Friday Flora: Across the Pond

In honor of the British holiday Guy Fawkes Day earlier this week (Remember, remember the 5th of November!), I thought it would be appropriate to share something from across the pond. You may ask, with the Exploring grant focused on…


Let It Snow

Following the first snowfall in the Twin Cities yesterday evening, I remembered that I have encountered several snowy scenes while working with the glass plate negatives in the Bell Museum collection. Here are some selected snow scenes to help sensitize…


Friday Flora: The Spirit Tree

I was entering caption information for the botanical photographs in the Department of Botany collection. This involved matching the digital reference image on my computer screen to the physical mounted photograph on my desk, deciphering the hand-written plant identification scrawled…


Friday Flora: Hats Off!

While faculty from the Department of Botany explored the state to identify plant life in the early 1900s, department photographer C.J. Hibbard not only provided photographic documentation of their observations, but also took the opportunity to explore a bit of…