Hear it again: Where the wild things grow — a visit to the new UW greenhouse

March 06, 2023 / 3:24 pm

caption: The upgraded greenhouse includes four rooms, one for arid plants, two for warm and cooler tropical plants, and called the "Tree of Life" room with plants like coffee and banana.

If you’re riding your bike down the Burke-Gilman Trail through the University of Washington campus, you’ll cruise by a long row of glass buildings.

Over the last three years, the University of Washington has been moving its extensive plant collection from its Botany Greenhouse in Redmond to this new 20,000-foot greenhouse on campus.

The collection now has 6,000 plants encompassing 3,000 species, making it one of the most diverse collections in the country.

The greenhouse originated as a collection of medicinal herbs and plants used in the pharmacology and toxicology programs at the university. In the 65 years since then, the collection has grown to include unique plants from remote corners of the world, including prehistoric ferns.

"A standout in here is our giant ferns," said Melissa Lacey, a plant tech at the greenhouse. "These are babies, and the fronds are maybe 10 feet now, but they're going to get bigger."

caption: The greenhouse stores a variety of species that ants use as nests. In this cross-section, you can see small tunnels ants use to navigate the bottom gourd of the plant.

caption: Plant techs Melissa Lacey (right) and Nile Kurashige. The staff at the greenhouse are tasked with hand watering every plant in the massive collection every day.

caption: The Deppea splendens is native to Mexico, but is now considered to be extinct in the wild. The greenhouse can produce more trees by using cuttings from the current plant, but those are clones and not genetically distinct individuals.

Various plants are used for biology classes at the university, but the collection is also used as a conservatory, with plants that have since disappeared from their native habitats, like the Deppea splendens from Mexico.

"This was collected in maybe the 1980s or 1990s," Lacey said. "And when someone went back, the habitat had been lost to plants."

The previous greenhouse required plants or students to commute to and from Redmond, where the collection was stored in one giant room. That meant arid desert plants shared the same space as humid tropical ones. The new facility has four distinct biomes for plant species: an arid room, two rooms for warm and cool tropical plants, and a "Tree of Life" room that includes food-producing plants like banana trees and coffee plants.

The greenhouse is open to the public. Entry is free. You can find more information on the greenhouse's website here.

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Libby Denkmann
Host, Soundside

Libby Denkmann joined KUOW in December 2021 as the host of the midday show Soundside. She’s a native Pacific Northwesterner who grew up in Redmond, graduated from the University of Washington, and covered local news as a producer and reporter with KIRO Radio.
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Alec Cowan
Producer, Soundside

Alec Cowan is a producer for Soundside. His interests have brought many eclectic stories to the program, and his segments gravitate toward history, technology, arts and culture, and the environment. He's proud to be KUOW's unofficial "boat guy."
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