People, Orchids, and Other Rarities on the Edge

Professor Sarah Johnson
Plants on the edge: Select Stories of At-Risk Species on Lake Superior Islands

Johnson will spotlight changes over the past 30 years in a few rare plant species she has studied in recent years in the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore and Isle Royale National Park including a small orchid called the broad-leaf twayblade orchid. These species are at the southern edge of their range, often from the Arctic, and many are charismatic cliff species or species that are adapted to habitats outside of, or ‘on the edge’ of, common ones.

Professor Erica Hannickel
Orchids in the Tenderloin: Exotic Blooms in 19th Century America’s Roughest Neighborhood

The first large orchid shows in America were not held at botanical gardens or sellers’ greenhouses. Instead, 1880s floraphiles found them in a rough-and-tumble dime museum in the center of New York City’s roughest neighborhood. Here, people of all stripes–showgirls, prostitutes, gamblers, fire eaters, and millionaires including the Astors, Vanderbilts, and Tiffanys–all gathered to appreciate exotic blooms. Orchids in the Tenderloin came to be a symbol of America’s growing economic and scientific reach around the globe.

Registration

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