The Biological Sciences Greenhouse Facility
The Ohio State University

The Conservatory features a tropical house with pond and waterfall and a desert house for the display of the teaching collection. The collection of more than 1200 plant species represents nearly 120 families. Several courses conduct laboratory exercises and classes in the Conservatory, including plant modification and adaptations, floral diversity, pollination mechanisms and studies in plant systematics. Despite foul weather outside, art students enjoy the warmth of the tropics while learning basic drawing techniques in courses offered through the Department of Art.

Visit the Conservatory from afar through the virtual tour link to the left.

The tropical room with its 35' peak is accented by an 18' specimen of Cycas circinalis, the Fern Palm. Though no records of earlier greenhouse collections survive, photographs show that the original botany greenhouses, built in 1914, were filled with numerous cycads and ferns. It is conceivable that this specimen was in the original collection. Cycads, which date back to the age of the dinosaurs, are endangered species.

A pond and waterfall display a variety of aquatic flora. Water lilies, Cyperus, canna, as well as the tiny floating Azolla grace the water. Beneath the surface, Elodea and ferny Myriophyllum grow. Maidenhair ferns and the clover-like Marsilia emerge from the edges of the waterfall. A top pool holds species of ferns and Cyperus whose roots form a natural filtration system for the pond.

The collection has an assortment of economically importance species. Among them, several cultivars of banana, tropical almond, passion flower, soursop, date palm and chicle. The fruits of papaya, ponderosa lemon, calamondin orange and coffee ripen on the plants for an educational experience beyond the grocery store. The fragrant blossoms of jasmine which yield the oil used in fragrances, clusters of orchid blooms and red heart-shaped Anthurium flowers popularly found in the local florists shop appear among a backdrop of foliages in every imaginable shade of green.

Cacti, agaves, euphorbs and other succulents in the collection are displayed in a separate desert house where environmental conditions are programmed to mimic their native habitat. The only exceptions are the Giant Saguaro, the Pony-tail Palm, and a specimen of the Madagascar Palm. These specimens were too tall to fit in the desert house so they have been placed in the higher peaked tropical house.