The Botany of Bluebonnets, Texas’s Favorite Flower

Row of bright blue and white bluebonnets

The bluebonnets are in bloom across North Texas, splashing waves of blue across hillsides and plains. Conditions this year were just right for brilliant display of color, and you can expect to see families plunking their kids down in the middle of blooming patches for photos all weekend.

PRESCRIBED BURN PLANNED FOR BRIT PRAIRIE

In conjunction with the Fort Worth Nature Center & Refuge, Fort Worth Botanic Garden is hosting an Urban Prescribed Burn Workshop tomorrow Friday March 3. This professional education event will involve a live controlled wildland burn activity on the Botanical Research Institute of Texas prairie at the corner of University and Trail Drive at 2 p.m.

Art and Science Meet in New Exhibition “Illuminations”

The worlds of art and science interact in fascinating ways in a new exhibit opening Feb. 17 at the BRIT Building. “Dornith Doherty: Illuminations: Past, Present, and Future of Fern Research” presents new large-scale artworks that engage with the past, chronicle the present and project our possible ecological futures.

Dornith Doherty Art Exhibition Opens Feb. 17  

The Fort Worth Botanic Garden is pleased to present “Dornith Doherty: Illuminations: Past, Present, and Future of Fern Research,” an art exhibition free and open to the public from Feb. 17 through Jun. 30 at the Madeline R. Samples Exhibit Hall in the BRIT building at 1700 University Dr. Fort Worth, Texas 76107. Gallery hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday-Friday. For more information, please call (817) 332-4441. 

Herbarium Reaches Transcription Milestone with 52,000-plus Specimens Fully Digitized

The herbarium is the heart of research at the Garden. A major priority of the herbarium is to digitize the collection by photographing the specimens and transcribing the related information recorded by botanists. Staff and volunteers made significant strides in reaching this goal last year. “The herbarium ended 2022 with complete transcriptions of 52,674 specimens,” says Herbarium Collections Manager Ashley Bordelon.

FWBG Experts and Volunteers Digitize Records of Renowned Botanist in Cutting-Edge Project

Botanist Sherwin Carlquist (1930-2021) was a legend in his field, a prolific researcher who made major contributions to plant systematics, plant anatomy, island biology and wood anatomy. He traveled the world collecting plant specimens, photographing plants in the field and collecting data about ecosystems. Hard work by our experts and volunteers means scientists interested in studying Carlquist’s work will soon have a new type of digital resource giving them unprecedented context for his findings: an extended specimen network. Assuming, that is, that they can decipher Carlquist’s handwriting. 

Meet the Author of the New BRIT Press Book “My Father Is the Gardener”

"My Father Is the Gardener" book cover

Many gardeners find the work of tilling the ground, planting seeds and caring for plants deeply meaningful. Author Shelley S. Cramm and illustrator Layla Luna have explored gardening as a spiritual practice and linked this experience to the plants and gardens of the Bible in their new book My Father Is the Gardener: Devotions in Botany and Gardening of the Bible, now available from BRIT Press.