A Summer Exhibition at The NYBG
If you haven't already, there are still a few days left to see The New York Botanical Garden's summer exhibition - Around the Table: Stories of the Foods We Love. The event runs through Sunday, September 11.
This major, institution-wide presentation examines the art and science of foods and food traditions through the years. Walking through the historic Enid A. Haupt Conservatory, this show features expansive displays of living edible plants - from dietary staples to culinary flavor providers. Throughout the NYBG's 250 acres, there are also art and science installations, family programming events, and artist-designed tables highlighting notable food plant histories and cultural traditions. It's an interesting way to appreciate the many plants that are grown for the dishes we consume and love.
Enjoy these photos. And, if you cannot make it to this show, perhaps you can attend the NYBG's next exhibit - KIKU, a spotlight on Japanese chrysanthemums that have been expertly trained over the past year into modern and ancient styles. It runs October 1st through October 30th.
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- There’s always something beautiful to see at The New York Botanical Garden. This is the magnificent Enid A. Haupt Conservatory, where many of the indoor plant exhibitions are held. As the nation’s largest Victorian glasshouse, it is among the grandest indoor spaces in the world.
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- The building is a series of large glass pavilions that are all very open on the inside, much like any greenhouse. The separate pavilions allow for any necessary variations in temperature and humidity.
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- Originally constructed in 1902, the steel and glass Conservatory includes a 90-foot tall domed Palm Gallery and 10 attached glasshouse galleries. Here is the view looking up at the dome from the inside.
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- Just inside the front entrance is the Reflecting Pool located below the Conservatory’s Palm Dome. It is used to display a variety of water loving plants, some specific the exhibition being shown.
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- These sculptures at one end of the pool represent some of the types of foods consumed around the world, and how much. It also shows the estimated carbon footprint that is made by the production of each food category.
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- Off to one side is this giant Triangle Palm, Dypsis decaryi. This palm is endemic to the southeastern most part of Madagascar, and it thrives in poor, dry soils. In the United States, triangle palm is found in southern Florida, southern Texas, and the Hawaiian Islands. It can reach heights of 25 to 35 feet with a crown spread of 15 feet. Fronds grow from the top portion of the trunk in three distinct rows, creating the shape of a triangle as petioles stack on top of one another. Seeds from its black fruit are edible.
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- Nearby is this Jelly Palm, Butia capitata. It is native to the states of Minas Gerais and Goiás in Brazil. The jelly palm can reach heights up to 10 to 20 feet. This plant blooms in the summer with small yellow, white, or red flowers that have a delightfully fruity scent. The tree produces edible pindo fruit that can be eaten fresh, used to make jellies and jams, or fermented into wine.
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- You may have seen one of these potted up in my greenhouse, or displayed outdoors in summertime at my farm. I grow it for its ornamental beauty, but Colocasia esculenta is a tropical plant also grown for its edible corms, a root vegetable most commonly known as taro. It is the most widely cultivated species of several plants in the family Araceae that are used as vegetables for their corms, leaves, and petioles.
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- Ornamental pepper, Capsicum annuum var. annuum ‘Sangria’, is a compact ornamental pepper that produces clusters of colorful, cayenne-type fruit. Ornamental peppers add a splash of color in the garden, and in containers.
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- This is one of the giant leaves of the banana tree. Its leaves are large, oblong, and bright green. Banana plants take around nine months to grow up and produce banana tree fruit, and then once the bananas have been harvested, the plant dies.
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- Here is a large leaf of the Breadfruit tree, Artocarpus altilis, a species of flowering tree in the mulberry and jackfruit family. Its large fruits are a staple food of the South Pacific and other tropical regions.
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- Pearl millet, Cenchrus americanus ‘Purple Majesty’ features three- to five-foot-tall plants, purple strap-like leaves, and one-foot-tall purple flower spikes. The flower spikes make excellent cut flowers, or if left to mature on the plant, a great seed source for birds. The nutritious seeds are also edible to humans and can be eaten raw, ground into a flour, roasted, or steamed for use in fermented and non-fermented breads, porridges, snack foods, and beverages.
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- Red Amaranth, Amaranthus cruentus, is a flowering plant species that’s a great example of root to stem cooking. The stalks, leaves, stems, flowers and seeds are all edible, and packed with nutrition. The amaranth seeds are a grain substitute, similar to quinoa.
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- This is painted bamboo, Bambusa vulgaris ‘Vittata’ – a large tender clumping bamboo with a maximum height of 50 feet. Large arching golden-yellow culms have green vertical stripes that look like drip marks. Branches are often striped as well. Bamboo shoots or bamboo sprouts are the edible shoots of many bamboo species including Bambusa vulgaris. They are used as vegetables in numerous Asian dishes and broths.
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- Vanilla planifolia is a species of vanilla orchid. It is native to Mexico and Belize. It is one of the primary sources for vanilla flavoring. Common names include flat-leaved vanilla, and West Indian vanilla.
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- And this is the cassava plant. Cassava Manihot esculenta. Cassava has a sweet and nutty taste, and can be eaten after it’s been boiled. It’s a major source of carbohydrates with a little bit of protein.
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- I am sure you recognize this fruit. The pineapple, Ananas comosus, is a tropical plant in the family Bromeliaceae. The pineapple is indigenous to South America, where it has been cultivated for many centuries. The fruit is edible, either eaten raw, cooked, or preserved. It is sweet, very succulent, and aromatic.
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- This is the Wine Palm, Jubaea chilensis, whose sap is used to make palm wine.
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- Jubaea chilensis a slow-growing evergreen palm with a huge and massive gray trunk supporting a dense crown of 40 to 50 gracefully arching featherlike leaves.
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- Outside the Conservatory is a field of sorghum bicolor, commonly called sorghum and also known as great millet, broomcorn, guinea corn, durra, imphee, jowar, or milo. I have also grown this at my farm. It is a grass species cultivated for its grain, which is used for food for humans, animals, and ethanol production.
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- Sorghum bicolor a heat-tolerant plant and is popular in parts of Asia, Africa, and the Middle East regions. Sorghum is the world’s fifth most important cereal after maize, rice, wheat, and barley.
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- If you’re in the New York City area this week, try to stop by to see this interesting exhibit. And go to the NYBG web site for information on other upcoming events and displays.
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