Going into this event, I felt awfully disillusioned and confused, but I came out quite excited and happy with this experience. As soon as I arrived at the Macaulay Building it was was complete chaos, at least for me, I had absolutely no clue what was going on, other students were crowded everywhere and even they did not know what was going on. In addition, many other students complained that the group they previously chose online while registering was already full. They subsequently had to switch into plant or bird groups since the other groups were full. Fortunately, I was already in the plant group, so I did not have to switch groups.
Once we got the the New York Botanical Gardens I was in awe because of the scenery. It was certainly breathtaking to see so much nature so close to the city and as soon as we started we came across a huge Red-Tailed Hawk trying to catch prey. Our guide is a plant taxonomist at the New York Botanical Garden, so he gave us a very interesting look on the plants we found. We commenced our journey into plants between the Two Lakes. Our guide allowed us to use most of our senses to observe the properties of these plants; we were even allowed to pull out plants and crush them in our hands in order to smell them. One plant he told us to break off, crush and smell was Artemesia Vulgaris because it is a relative of the plant used to create absinthe, so it had a similar scent to the drink. Our guide also showed us a plant that is very common in New York, but poisonous to ingest, Phytolacca Americana. This plant, according to the taxonomist, can dangerously increase white blood cell counts to the point that it mimicked the effects of Leukemia. My most favorite plant was Salvia Byzantinum, which is also known as Lamb’s Ear. It is a very hairy plant that feels like a thick piece of felt. When I first encountered it I was fascinated with how it felt and how soft it was. It was like a pair of fleece pajamas! We also came across a similar plant to the Salvia Byzantimum, which was the flannel leaf. We also came across several very peculiar plants such as the porcelain berries.
After picking out plants we were taught how to press the plants in order to preserve and store them. Although it is a very old method of tracking and keeping plant life from France (1400’s), it helps preserve the shape of the plant the best and allows for easy storage in a temperature controlled facility because of its flatness. It’s what works best and stores the most samples of these plants. And of course we were told by the taxonomist that he keeps a journal of some sort detailing color and scents since that information won’t be available once its flatten. Finally, we were free to use the microscopes to look at the plants up close to see the differences between similar plants. Overall the experience was pretty fun and I learned quite a lot about different types of plants in the New York Botanical Gardens and in and around New York City.
