Finally. A post about plants! 


On Thursday we went to the Missouri Botanical Garden. We were given a tour of their herbarium (which, if you don't know is a collection of dried plant specimens). They have millions of plant specimens from around the world preserved there, including some from the 1800s (The one in this picture is one of those). Scientists use these plant specimens to work on taxonomy, species classification, phylogeny and such. I was in awe that some of the specimens are so old and so delicately preserved that we can still refer to them. It is also a testimony to the great diversity of plants. Even though they have millions of samples it is only a small fraction of the total flora that currently grow on the planet and an even smaller fraction of all the plants that have ever grown.  We also got to see their rare botanical books. Books from the 1400s on agriculture, plants and such. They even have a first edition of Darwin's "On the Origin of Species" and a first edition of "Micrographia" (which has some of the first drawings of images seen through a microscope which I think is really cool).


Enough with the boring science stuff. Onto the pretty plants.


 I can't tell you the names or species of most of the plants that I saw but I can tell you that they were stunning.  I ranted on an on before about how the zoo shows God's creativity. I think plants show God's appreciation of beauty, his ingenious artistry.


 The array of colors was marvelous- a whole spectrum of pink just in the rose garden alone.

Some flowers hung, others crawled, some sprawled while others climbed. 

Scents as sweet as starfruit, bold as basil, light as lavender. 

And then there were quirky plants like these "living rocks"

I think there's a reason Eden was a garden. It really would be paradise. I'm a little peeved at Adam and Eve for getting humanity kicked out of it. But, if I were Adam and Eve, I would have run to the banana tree to make my wardrobe. I mean really, look a the size of those leaves.

It was tremendously refreshing to escape the urban environment for a stroll through nature. Sometimes I forget how enlivening nature is until I'm once again embraced in is peacefulness. 

-K