Visiting the U.S. Botanic Garden

Checking out a greenhouse in the heart of Washington, D.C.

I had a chance to confabulate Washington , D.C. , of late and spend some clock time in one of my best-loved spots in that metropolis . Sitting right on the National Mall , the U.S. Botanic Garden is a beautiful conservatory full of a lot of beautiful plants . Here are some of my best-loved shots from the desert theatre in the conservatoire .

Stapelia gigantea . This odd plant from Africa , which is a congener of milkweed , produces these absurdly huge , eldritch - look flowers . The blooms smell out like molder meat but were n’t producing their perfume when I visited . If you love this works but do n’t have a glasshouse , do n’t worry — they do quite well on a gay windowsill .

When we think of orchids , we usually think of rainforests , but this xanthous orchid , Zelenkoa onusta , is actually native to deserts in South America , where it lives perched on the side of cactus and desert Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree ! It is very cool , and the flowers are adorable .

I jazz the huge , silver , spiky leaves ofAloe marlothii .

Compare thisAgave parryisubsp.parryito the aloe in the previous photo , and you get a near example of convergent evolution . The agave and the aloe look very similar , but they ’re from wholly different parts of the humanity ( North America and Africa , respectively ) and are n’t close related . They both hold out in deserts , however , and have converge on the same overall condition to thrive in that climate .

Cleistocactus winteriis a cactus I think I need to get . What a cool - looking flora ! I ’d love to see it growing in a hanging handbasket .

herald all the way from Madagascar , thisKalanchoe beharensisis a typical industrial plant , with leaves that are thick , fleshy , and fuzzy . It eventually rise into a bush or even a small-scale tree .

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