Hunting Plants at Boyce Thompson

Siegwarth gave a lecture Friday evening at Bullion Plaza for this month’s First Friday lecture series. He shared some fun, lesser known facts about the arboretum, as well as some stunning photos. He also pointed out plants of significance to keep an eye out for on the trail. Several of them intrigued me. I decided I would make the trip out, and see if I could pinpoint some of these plants by walking the trail myself.

Here is what I came up with:

(All photos by Jenn Walker  Property of Globe Miami Times.)

Pulque Agave Agave Salmiana

Hopbrush Dodonaea Viscosa

This evergreen, drought-tolerant, flowering plant is pantropical! It is found throughout tropical and warm regions of the world: from California, Arizona, and Florida to South America, Africa, Southern Asia, Australia, and the Hawaiian Islands. Needless to say, this shrub is extremely resilient. (Sometimes it grows into a tree!)

Wollemi Pine Wollemia nobilis

Until the early ‘90s, this rare plant was identified only by fossil records. It was thought to be extinct! Then, in 1994, a field officer for the National Parks and Wildlife Service discovered the Wollemi Pine in Wollemi National Park, in New South Wales, Australia. Though it is informally known as the Wollemi Pine, it is in fact a conifer, not a pine tree.

So, next time you take a trip to the arboretum, see if you can spot these plants along the trail for yourself!

Of course, I couldn’t resist throwing in a few other photos:

Colonel William Boyce Thompson's mansion, aka Picket Post House

Velvet Mesquite Prosopis velutina