Missouri Botanical Garden Trip

Wow... I have some serious catching up to do! Last week, on Tuesday night, Lindsay and I, along with Tony Troche, drove to St. Louis to visit the Missouri Botanical Garden. Tony and I were going to the Garden to visit the herbarium in the Monsanto and Lehman buildings. We met up with Justin and Dana Thomas and their son Eli early on Wedensday morning, and spent the next three days scouring through specimens in the herbarium. Lindsay spent a little time at the herbarium but mostly spent time with her friends Jenny and Frank and their daughter Allison. They visited the St. Louis Zoo and walked through the Garden, and Lindsay has lots of great photos that I'm trying to convince her to share on this blog (any help would be appreciated!).


While in the herbarium, Dana looked at the Zizia-Thaspium complex (and took care of Eli), Justin looked at a few sedges (Carex) and a variety of mosses (and took care of Eli), Tony spent a lot of time on rushes (Juncus), and I looked at a variety of groups, including a few asters (Symphyotrichum/Aster), sunflowers (Helianthus), mountain mints (Pycnanthemum), and sedges (Carex). One of the highlights was Tony coming across a specimen of roundhead rush (Juncus validus), collected years ago in Butler County, Missouri, that was incorrectly identified and filed away as whiteroot rush (Juncus brachycarpus). Without Tony's sharp eye, this rare rush would still be unknown from Butler County!


Special thanks to George and Kay Yatskievych and Mary McNamara for setting us up with excellent accomodations and workspace at the Garden.


On Friday afternoon, we left the Garden and drove to Salem, Missouri to spend the weekend with Justin, Dana, and Eli. We took a few botanizing trips, and I'll share results in future posts here and at Get Your Botany On!. On the way to Salem, we stopped to eat at a great barbeque restaurant in Cuba, Missouri...

Happy spring!