Somedays I question everything. I’m ridiculously hard on myself and I have methods to keep myself on track. One way is to visit the US botanic garden and take photos. This post is myself searching for meaning in life while also working on the puzzle that is photographing plants
I often spend a long time on this little bridge overlooking this lush grotto. The gardeners work daily to maintain the permanent collection as well as cycle in new plants from the production facility in Anacostia (that I’m dying to visit). This time I found a massive Adansonaii climbing up the palm in the center of the photo. It seems to trail along the ground because I found little holy leave poking up all around this area.
This is the same areas as the image before/beside this but from another angle. here the glosorium (? I think that’s it in the center of the shot.
Those staghorn (? damn I keep forgetting to ask for an id on these) are SPECTACULAR. These enormous specimen are so high up it’s hard to see how truly enormous they are.
This medillina was putting off quite the display. Pretty cool walking under those pink flowery bundles :)
This weirdo little plant is one that gets me every trip but continues to elude my attempts to photograph it’s full oddity.
Bow to the fern gods that look over this garden. You brighten my life.
The lush prehistoric goodness is so soothing.
The orchid room is another place that just never translates into photos. There are blooming orchids surrounding you on all sides and the relatively small space makes it difficult to step back and show this magical little slice of jungly heaven.
Planty people understand the joy of a freshly unfurling new leaf. They’re one of my favorite things to look for when I visit the gardends now.
Peperomia quadrangularis Piperaceae - West Indes, Panama, northern South America
I saved this amazing hoya for last cause I know if you’re this dedicated to my love of plants, you too will geek out about this shingling hoya with speckled foliage *swoon*
Hoya imbricata Apocynaceae - Indonesia and the Philippines