nybg:

The damage is done, the assessment is in. Per Todd Forrest, NYBG’s VP for Horticulture and Living Collections:

Sandy caused significant damage to trees, fences, small structures, signs, and one building across the 250 acres of The New York Botanical Garden. While we are still assessing the damage, initial surveys reveal that over 100 native trees in the Forest and throughout the landscape, including some of our ancient and most magnificent oaks, were destroyed.  Hundreds of mature pines, spruces, and firs in the Ross Conifer Arboretum and Benenson Ornamental Conifers and other irreplaceable collections of trees across the Garden were damaged.  Over the next few days, curators and arborists will carefully inspect trees across the landscape for broken and damaged limbs and other substantial damage not immediately apparent after the storm.

Staff members of the Garden’s Operations and Horticulture Divisions began clean-up efforts even before the storm had moved inland.  Their initial efforts focused on the clearing of roads and the removal of downed trees from buildings and structures.  Certain areas of the Garden, including the Forest, the Azalea Garden, the Ross Arboretum, and the Benenson Ornamental Conifers will remain closed until the damage in these areas can be fully assessed and paths and roadways cleared.

While Sandy’s fierce winds have altered the tree canopy that lends singular grace and beauty to our historic landscape, we are working hard to re-establish the calm beauty that makes the Garden an oasis for all New Yorkers, particularly during trying times.  Many sections of the Garden, including the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory, will re-open to the public on Thursday, November 1.

So come visit! It’s one of the best ways to support the Garden as we tackle this herculean cleanup effort. Metro North is running again on the Harlem Line, so our very own stop—Botanical Garden Station—is just a 20-minute ride away from Grand Central Terminal! A walk around the grounds is just the thing to help erase cabin fever!

This makes me so unimaginably sad, there were some beautiful old trees destroyed in the Garden. That said, you should definitely visit and support the Garden, it’s beautiful!

Palynology is the study of pollen, or, more specifically, “the study of microscopic objects of macromolecular organic composition (i.e. compounds of carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen and oxygen), not capable of dissolution in hydrochloric or hydrofluoric acids.” This includes pollen and spores, among other things.
Pollen is extremely resilient, and scientists can extract ancient pollen from compacted earth or lake beds, and analyze the composition, to see what plants existed during a certain time period.

 Source: W.A.S. Sarjeant, 2002. ‘As chimney-sweeps, come to dust’: a history of palynology to 1970. 

This is William Mitten. He was a British pharmaceutical chemist who compiled a collection of over 50,000 plant specimens, mostly mosses, in his lifetime. He was a bryologist, someone who studies mosses.

This moss is a member of the Hedwigiaceae family! It has about six genera, such as Hedwigia and Hedwigium.