University of Minnesota Foundation

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Winter 2021
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A world under glass

By AMY SITZE
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After months of preparation, the new home of the College of Biological Sciences (CBS) Conservatory and Botanical Collection was ready to open to the public in March 2020—just as COVID-19 closed down campus and sent students and faculty home. But while human lives were turned upside down, more than 2,000 plant species inside the glass greenhouses grew and thrived, thanks to dedicated staff, student workers, volunteers, and the generosity of donors. Curator Lisa Philander hopes to open the greenhouse to the public as soon as it’s safe to do so. In the meantime, here’s a sneak peek at what’s inside.

Photography courtesy of Jackson Eddy/A Frame Forward Photography, except where otherwise noted. All images were taken prior to the pandemic.


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The greenhouse that houses the CBS Conservatory is the tallest on the St. Paul campus.
The Catherine and Ford Nicholson Common Room, named to honor the donors who made a lead gift for the new conservatory, is a busy place where students and staff do day-to-day work such as planting seeds, mixing soil, and dividing plants.
The gecko-pollinated flower of Nesocodon mauritianus, which is native to the island of Mauritius off the coast of Madagascar, has bright red nectar. University of Minnesota researchers are using the plant to synthesize a red dye that may someday replace Red Dye 40.
In the Mediterranean Scrubland room, plants from South Africa and Australia bloom during Minnesota’s winter, allowing students to enjoy and study them during the school year.
Amborella tricopoda was the first flowering plant in evolutionary history. Native to the island of New Caledonia, it has creamy white flowers.
In the behind-the-scenes research area of the conservatory, students and faculty can study a variety of plants, including members of the cacti and Euphorbia family (shown here).
Once common in the Hawaiian cloud forest, Brighamia insignis is now extinct in the wild, though cuttings are grown in greenhouses across the world. The CBS Conservatory is one of the few places in the world that successfully got the plant to flower. “This is our biggest conservation success story,” says Philander.
This subtly beautiful orchid, Dinema polybulbon, started as a 5-inch stick. It’s now a thriving plant that measures approximately 2 feet by 3 feet, thanks to a volunteer who’s been caring for it for 18 years. In 2019, it won a Certificate of Cultural Excellence from the American Orchid Society, an award given to plants that have received exceptional care.
The Diverse Deserts room houses the only collection of Somali plants under glass in the world.
Frankincense (Boswellia sacra) is part of the conservatory’s collection of plants from Somalia. Extracting the sap for uses such as spiritual ceremonies, perfumes, and medicines is one of the country’s most important economic activities.
Photo courtesy of CBS Conservatory
Curator Lisa Philander talks to students about the evolution of cone-bearing plants, using the coniferous tree Araucaria nemorosa as an example, in the Ancient Rainforest room.
Ptisana attenuata is an early fern in the evolution of ferns and plants.