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TODAY'S HOURS: 8 AM – 5 PM

*Last entry is an hour before closing

Phytophilia

Official blog of the Botanical Research Institute of Texas.

Phytophilia = Love of Plants. BRIT’s mission is to conserve our natural heritage by deepening our knowledge of the plant world and achieving public understanding of the value plants bring to life.

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Botanical Art = Botanical Science

The history of civilization can be told through pictures of plants. The roots of botanical art and the science of botany began in ancient Greek and Roman times, depicting plants as a means of understanding and recording their potential uses.

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Pondering Poaceae Across Texas

Dan Caudle discusses his interest in grasses and grasslands, giving particular attention to his work with Meredith Ellis, a young rancher and committed conservationist in Cooke County, Texas.

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Searching for Mertensia through the Mountains of China

From the mountains of China, comes a botany story in search of Mertensia (Bluebells), of the Boraginaceae family. Through the summer of 2010, botanist Mare Nazaire Ph.D. of California Botanic Garden (RSA) conducted numerous field collecting trips throughout the alpine regions of China.

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Collecting Collections; Tiana F. Rehman, BRIT Herbarium

Tiana F. Rehman, BRIT’s Herbarium Collections Manager, tells us about the many collections that compose the Herbarium. This is the first interview of the Library’s new Collection Lens series, which highlights collection managers from around the world across botanical libraries and herbaria as collections move into the future.

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A Library Encircling A Herbarium

Imagine a herbarium of just under 400,000 plant specimens in cabinets with a corresponding botany library of 40,000 books lining the periphery, along the walls of the herbarium collection accessible to researchers working in the collection. This was the design of the SMU Herbarium and Library housed on the SMU campus before moving to BRIT in 1991.

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