Robert Mowbray's Tour of the United States Botanic Garden

February 23, 2008: Robert Mowbray, a tropical forest ecologist, natural resource management specialist, and USBG docent, led 10 members through the collections at the United States Botanic Garden. The discussion ranged widely from endangered and threatened species, to non-native plant invasions, to sources for commercial plants (coffee, vanilla, starfruit), to plant mutation and hybridization (corn) to the pharmacalogical use of plants, the addictive nature of caffeine, the diplomatic problems of plant exploration and the distinction between a rainforest and a jungle (it's a second-growth rainforest).









Bloom of the cacao tree (l); from this small flowers grows the large pod that contains the cacao beans.







SITE UNDER CONSTRUCTION, Please return later.