Botany Greenhouses: East Circle Drive Oval
517-355-0229
To serve its teaching mission, the Department of Botany and Plant Pathology constructed the Botany Teaching Greenhouses in 1930. With a later addition, the facility space totaled 8,500 square feet. From 1966 to 1976, the facility was directed by Irving Knobloch, professor of botany and plant pathology, who developed the extensive fern collection and the Tropical House.
When the Department of Horticulture moved from north campus to the Plant and Soil Sciences Building in 1987, its 14,000 square feet of greenhouse space became the Michigan State University Conservatory. Under the direction of Professor Stephen C. Bromley, staff from the botany department renovated rooms in the facility to represent different world habitats, such as desert and subtropical biomes.
In September 1990, the Botany Teaching Greenhouse and the Michigan State University Conservatory merged to become the Botany and Plant Pathology Teaching Greenhouse and Live Plant Collection. The current facility comprises more than 10,000 square feet of display area with another 9,500 square feet reserved for propagation, maintenance and meeting rooms. The Departments of Botany and Plant Pathology and Entomology cooperated on establishing the Butterfly House and Insect Zoo, an environment for live butterflies and their host plants. Another 3,000 square feet of space was recently transformed into a tropical rainforest habitat.
In addition to subtropical and tropical specimens, the collection maintains a full complement of arid plants. Prominent components include new and old world succulents, cycads, bromeliads, ferns, insectivorous plants, and economically important tropical plants. The collection of orchids is perhaps the most comprehensive of any at a U.S. university. Records of all the species in the Botany and Plant Pathology Teaching Greenhouses and Live Plant Collection are maintained on a Dbase III computer database.
The Live Plant Collection primarily provides live plants for instructional purposes. Many plants are propagated for microscopic dissection by students. However, collections are also used extensively in many of the university's biological science courses; plants are borrowed for macroscopic laboratory observation, and student observations of rare display plants are conducted within the facility. Beyond campus, the collection supports a plant exhibit at Lansing's Impression Five Science Museum, and conducts facility tours for classes from local schools.
The facility is open to the public from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. weekdays.
Tours can be arranged for classes and other groups, large or small, by calling 355-0229.
The Botany and Plant Pathology Live Plant Collection is maintained in the greenhouses in the East Circle Drive oval, northwest of the Natural Science Building near the northern terminus of Farm Lane.
Most plants are acquired through donation, collection in the field, or exchange. A few are purchased and some excess material is sold.
Because the physical facilities are quite old, a priority is to replace or renovate them. With the completion of the Butterfly House and Insect Zoo, development is now focused on completion of the Rainforest Room. Plans are also to improve collection labeling and the plant information database.
Although there is no ranking system for botany teaching collections, the display rooms are among the most complete and useful on any U.S. university campus. The orchid collection appears to be without equal at such institutions.