A Botanical Tour of Harlem
The New York City neighborhood of Harlem is a center for Black…
Botanical Ragtime
Artists find inspiration from an infinite number of sources, and many artists…
Botany & Birds: Taking Flight
The exhibition on now at The New York Botanical Garden, is the work of…
Cattleya
Cattleya is a genus of 129 tropcial American orchids distributed from Costa…
Dancing Lady Orchids Take Center Stage
Dancing Lady Orchid is the collective common name for the orchid genus…
Dendrobium
With over 1,800 know species, Dendrobium is one of the 10 most…
Epidendrum of Mexico!
Epidendrum is one of the largest of all plant genera in addition to…
Ethel Zoe Bailey
Women in ScienceFocus on Science
Ethel Zoe Bailey (1889–1983), was the first curator of the Bailey Hortorium…
Exploring the Bahamas with Lewis Jones Knight Brace
The Bahamas suffered its worst natural disaster recently as Hurricane Dorian, a…
Honoring the Quechua Language
What's in a name?Specimen Stories
Quechua is a family of indigenous languages spoken by the Quechua peoples of…
Incised fumewort
A new invasive, this relative of the Bleeding Heart was recently found…
Koʻoloaʻula
This Federally Endangered Hibiscus relative with bright red flowers is endemic to…
Meet Spiranthes bightensis: A New Orchid in Our…
Focus on ScienceSpecimen Stories
Botanists have probably described and named 99% of the plants native to…
Miltonia
Miltonia consists of 20 naturally occuring species and hybrids that are entirely…
Naming the Rainbow
Botany uses Latin to describe and name plants, including the Latin words…
Naming the Rainbow: Aurantiaco / Orange
Alas, the Latin name of the sweet orange that makes orange juice…
Naming the Rainbow: Caeruleum / Blue
The rarest color in nature, caeruleum (Latin for blue), usually indicates a…
Naming the Rainbow: Coccineum / Scarlet
A close cousin of the color rubrum, coccineum (Latin for scarlet) is…
Naming the Rainbow: Flavum / Yellow
Flavum (Latin for yellow) is often used to indicate yellow flowers, hairs, or…
Naming the Rainbow: Indicum / Indigo
Indigo, the dark bluish-purple color of blue jeans, is a natural dye…
Naming the Rainbow: Purpurea / Purple
The deep color purpura, Latin for purple, is commonly used to indicate…
Naming the Rainbow: Rubrum / Red
Rubrum, Latin for red, is often used to indicate firey red flowers…
Naming the Rainbow: Viola / Violet
In an etymological twist, the color violet takes its name from the violet…
Naming the Rainbow: Viridis / Green
Most plants are green, but only a select few have viridis (Latin…
No Leaves, No Problem!
Although the vast majority of plants have leaves, not all plants do,…
NY's Missing Species
When you think of a rare, endangered species, you may think of far-off…
NYBG 2021 New Species Review!
Every year, botanists describe hundreds of new plant, fungal, and lichen species from…
NYBG 2022 New Species Review!
Every year, botanists describe hundreds of new plant, algal, fungal, and lichen…
NYBG 2023 New Species Review!
Every year, botanists describe hundreds of new plants, algae, fungi, and lichens…
NYBG 2024 New Species Review!
Every year, botanists describe hundreds of new plants, algae, fungi, and lichens…
NYBG 2025 Biodiversity Impact Review!
Every year, botanists describe hundreds of new plants and fungi from across…
Orchids in your Home!
Orchids are the largest plant family, with over 28,000 known species, and…
Orchids Named for Mexico!
Focus on ScienceWhat's in a name?
Scientific names for plants can indicate a number of different attributes, including…
Orchids of Mexico!
Mexico is a 'mega' biodiversity hotspot, and it is particularly rich in…
Orchids of New York: Fairy Slippers and Dragon…
Although most orchids are found in the tropical mountain systems of the…
Paphiopedilum
Paphiopedilum is genus of slipper orchid found in tropical Asia, from eastern…
Phalaenopsis
Phalaenopsis, the moth orchids, are perhaps the most commonly cultivated orchid. With…
Pleurothallid orchids of Mexico!
The Pleurothallid orchids are a clade of related genera, meaning they are…
Prairie White Fringed Orchid
Nearly all of the habitat of the endangered Prairie White Fringed Orchid…
Prosthechea of Mexico!
Prosthechea is a large tropcial American genus of 125 known species, occuring…
Royal Symbols
Plants have been employed as royal symbols through time and across cultures.…
Species that Work-from-Home
Like many of you, NYBG herbarium staff are currently working from home…
Spiranthinae of Mexico!
The orchid family is so diverse, researchers find it helpful to give…
Stanhopea of Mexico!
Stanhopea are amongst the most impressive and beautiful of all orchids, with…
The Ames–Britton Connection
Specimen StoriesWomen in Science
Blanche Ames Ames (February 18, 1878 – March 2, 1969) was not…
The LGBTQ+ Legacy of NYBG: Out of the…
Herbarium specimens are kept in metal cabinets to protect them from damage.…
Typical: Ceratozamia euryphyllidia, the largest type?
Plant specimens come in all shapes and sizes, but they are usually…
Vanda
Vanda is a tropcial Asian and Australian orchid genus with 85 known…
Vanishing Lakes: Great Salt Lake
Great Salt Lake is a shallow, highly saline, terminal lake situated in northern…
Vanishing Lakes: Lake Poopó
Lake Poopó is a saline lake in the Altiplano Mountains of Bolivia.…
Vanishing Lakes: Owens Lake
The drying of Owens Lake is a human-made catastrophe. In 1913, the…
Vanishing Lakes: Salton Sea
Ingloriously described as “the biggest environmental disaster in California history,” and a…
Vanishing Lakes: Tulare Lake
The California Central Valley was once a matrix of riparian grasslands and…