The Plant Collections

The Conservatory has six "zones" for the plant collection.  Drs. Gladish and Munson have made a good start on the collection, but it will soon be much larger and more complex than now.

The Tropical Room houses plants that are native to regions of the world that have warm, humid, and relatively uniform climates with frequent rains.  These regions are Central America, Northern South America, Sub-Saharan Africa, Southeast Asia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Northern Australia, and various tropical islands.

The Desert Room houses native xerophytes (plants that are heat and drought resistant).  These plants are from Northern Mexico, the US Southwest, North and South Africa, Madagascar, the Middle East, Northwestern India, the South American Southwest, Central Asia, and Australia.

The Horticulture Room contains frost-tender plants that would probably not exist but for the care of humans.  These include a wide range of colorful cultivars (cultivated varieties) and hybrids.

The Atrium houses our frost-tender arborescent plants (trees and other large specimens) from all over the world.

The formal gardens and groves that surround the building contain many native perennial herbs, shrubs, and trees or cultivars of same.  These areas are dedicated to sharing with the community the beauty, utility, and versatility of native Ohio plants for landscaping.

The tallgrass prairie is a reconstruction of a biome type that was once frequently found in Southwest Ohio that has largely been replaced by farms and urban development.  All of the plants in our prairie are native Ohio plant species and their varieties.  The current prairie is undergoing an expansion that includes a nature trail that winds through the area to make observing the plants more easy for everyone.