For the first time, the public can now go behind the scenes to view Marie Selby Botanical Gardens’ impressive research collections.
The newly constructed Steinwachs Family Plant Research Center houses the world’s second largest collection of perserved flowers, a research library with rare books dating back to the late 1700s and an extensive herbarium. The gardens’ live plant collection is also known as the best in the world for its representation of bromiliads and epiphytes, or air plants.
Selby’s master plan, approved by the Sarasota City Commission in 2021, is set to preserve the gardens’ history and world-renowned scientific documentation and research, while enhancing environmental education opportunities for the public.
“One of the very core tenants to the master plan was safeguarding our research collections, and also revealing those hidden treasures to the public,” said Selby Gardens CEO Jennifer Rominiecki. “Before the master site plan, the world-class research being done was not part of the public’s experience.”
The center is open to the public by appointment, and the impressive collections can be seen on the top floor of the hurricane-resistant building.
In the library, visitors can view over 7,000 volumes, including 14,000 issues of scientific journals, 2,500 microfiches of early botanical references and herbaria, a photographic slide collection, an illustration file, a map file, and the Gardens’ historical archives. The library specializes in New World tropical and subtropical botany, ecology, and horticulture.
A searchable catalogue is available online and a diverse collection of media resources on tropical botany, with an emphasis on epiphytes, is also housed in the library. Primarily a research and reference tool for staff scientists and horticulturists, it is also used by plant professionals and amateur plant enthusiasts, according to the gardens’ website.
For more hands-on research, the herbarium, a collection of dried and pressed plant samples preserved for long-term study, is home to over 115,000 specimens.
“The herbarium specimen, it’s the gold standard of documentation that a plant occurs at a certain place at a certain time,” said Assistant Curator Liz Gandy. “Herbaria are hundreds of years old, and specimens that are well done can last for hundreds of years.”
Selby’s collection dates back to 1844, and each specimen features a label with information on the plant. This includes the name of the plant, where it was found, who found it, what habitat it was growing in, whether it was flowering or fruiting, etc. Labels vary based on the institution collecting each sample.
The Spirit Collection provides an alternative method of study, with roughly 35,000 vials of flowers and other plant parts preserved in an alcohol-glycerin fluid. Nearly 33,000 of those vials contain specimens in the orchid family.
The plants are kept in their three dimensional state, allowing botanists to study them in a close-to-nature form.
The building also features a mollecular lab where scientists can study plant DNA and a flasking lab that allows for new plant growth.
To learn more about the updates and the master plan, visit https://selby.org/.
Sarah Owens is a reporter for the Community News Collaborative. Connect with her at slowens@cncfl.org.
