Student tends to greenhouse plants

Senior Manuel Valle peers into his microscope and observes the mosaic patterns on his slide. The slide was produced by a company in North Carolina and stained specifically to help students identify different cellular structures. But the potted plant next to him, which serves to identify the slice of water lily on his slide, was grown in Strosacker's greenhouse under the watchful eye of junior Megan Saunders. 

 

For the past year and a half, Saunders has swept the floor, watered, pruned, potted and re-potted the plants that make up the Strosacker Greenhouse. At the beginning of Saunders' sophomore year, Renessa Cooper, associate professor of biology, asked her if she was interested in plants. Saunders said yes and was soon watching over the greenhouse and its silent inhabitants. 

 

"It's not a huge job," Saunders said. "But it's rewarding because you're working with your hands."

 

Cooper said the greenhouse produces plants needed for Biology 102, Evolution in Biodiversity and Botany. Occasionally, she'll take her students into the greenhouse to showcase the variety of plants, but in large, the florid room doesn't see too many visitors beyond the occasional student seeking extra credit, Cooper, the rare studier and Saunders.

 

"Visitors are welcome," Cooper said, "which is why we put a sign up." 

 

One whole wall of the structure is dedicated to aloe plants. The flowering plant grows so much that Cooper said she often gives them away. But the greenhouse takes plants too. Cooper said when students own plants which have grown too large and unruly for a dorm room, they donate it to the biology department. During winter break, she also takes in plants while students are away.

 

Saunders said she occasionally helps move plants to botany labs, but often she simply feeds the aloes, the agave plant (a relative to the plant responsible for tequila), the rubber plants and the two dwarf banana trees. A few times a month, they're fertilized. Saunders said the banana trees, now a bit dried out, looked fantastic at the end of the summer. Cooper said they have yet to produce fruit. 

 

One of the more colorful plants in the greenhouse, called the Anthurium, looks like it has an elongated grub jumping off a red leaf. 

 

"These are actually flowers along this spadix," Saunders said, pointing towards the little dots covering the yellow edifice. "The red thing is actually called a spathe, but it's just an altered leaf." 

 

Next, she points out a leafy plant with what looks like rice growing in the middle of its leaves.

 

"For the first couple of weeks I always thought it was covered in bugs so it sort of creeped me out when I saw it in the corner of my eye," Saunders said. The little growths are another method of disguising flowers. 

 

Cooper points out a variety of plants after her botany lab. One species has existed virtually unchanged since dinosaurs roamed. Another, the pencil plant, stretches over two rubber plants, flanked by the aloes. A smaller one is knocked over.  

 

"It's a jungle in there," She said. "But jungles are good."