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You know what they say—home is where the heart is and also where the lichens are. Actually, as far as I can tell I’m pretty much the only one who says that part about lichens. (I’m trying to get it

If you’ve ever walked along a meandering stream in the high plains or through native grass prairie, you may have been lucky enough to spot the Colorado butterfly plant ( Oenothera coloradensis synonym

From April to October, I and two other botanists, Daniel Bradley and Lysa DuCharme, traveled around the state on a seed-collecting mission. Armed with a list of over 100 native plant species and a

As we turned southward out of Montrose, the deep green of a damp forest surrounding the towering San Juan Mountains reassured us that this trip would prove worthwhile. Dr. Andy Wilson and I were

To my friends in college I was always the crazy plant lady with a baby palm tree in her apartment, but I’ve found that here at Denver Botanic Gardens I’m the least “planty” of the plant people. I just

This spring was the first growing season of my prairie restoration experimental research plot at Chatfield Farms. Millions of pounds of seed are planted every year for ecological restoration and the

Rivers and their neighboring ecosystems are very important for plants and animals – especially in the American West where surface water is limited. Native plants in riverine ecosystems provide food

If you think about hiking in the mountains of Colorado during different seasons of the year, you might recall seeing plants at different stages of their life. After the snow melts in the spring

On the western slope of Colorado you will find populations of a rare ball cactus with lilac flowers that bloom a few days a year when the sun is shining and pollinators are flying. Each Colorado

Are you interested in becoming a citizen scientist? We need your help this summer observing plant species along the High Line Canal (training dates are in May and June). Bioblitzes are short, focused

If you have ever stopped by the Research and Conservation Department’s office in the Boettcher Memorial Center’s basement, you have probably been offered a tour of the Gardens’ herbaria, or dried

In the 1860s, pioneers settled on the land next to Deer Creek in what is now Littleton. The stream provided the settlers with the only water around for miles. Frank Hildebrand bought a log cabin and a