Penn State Botany Greenhouse

Penn State Botany Greenhouse Welcome to the official page for Penn State’s Eberly College of Science’s Botany Greenhouse!

It’s finally time! Our Monstera deliciosa’s fruit is finally ripe. Well at least a portion of it is ripe. Monstera fruit...
09/04/2026

It’s finally time! Our Monstera deliciosa’s fruit is finally ripe. Well at least a portion of it is ripe. Monstera fruit ripens gradually, usually starting from the base or the tip and moving slowly along the cob. Both of our fruits are ripening from the base and will slowly continue to ripen with the green scales slowly falling away. Only the soft, exposed white flesh where the green scales have already fallen off on their own are ready to eat. The unripe sections, where the green scales are not peeling away, still contain high levels of oxalic acid and calcium oxalate crystals, which will cause a painful, burning, or stinging sensation in your mouth and throat.

The greenhouse has three interns this fall working in the greenhouse with Kim! Meet Lauren, a Plant Science major with a...
09/03/2026

The greenhouse has three interns this fall working in the greenhouse with Kim! Meet Lauren, a Plant Science major with a concentration in Genetics and Biotechnology. Lauren will be researching beneficial insects that could be used in the greenhouse to help reduce pesticide use and as part of an Integrated Pest management plan this fall for her internship project. Pictured are Liam and Lauren mounting anthurium and ferns for the collections room.

Our little Welwitschia are still growing! Welwitschia are very slow growers so it will be awhile until they are as big a...
09/02/2026

Our little Welwitschia are still growing! Welwitschia are very slow growers so it will be awhile until they are as big as the older ones in the Botany Greenhouse collections!

Meet Liam, one of the greenhouse’s interns for the fall semester. Liam is a Plant Science major and International Agricu...
08/28/2026

Meet Liam, one of the greenhouse’s interns for the fall semester. Liam is a Plant Science major and International Agriculture minor. He will be in the greenhouse this semester working with Kim for a few hours each week. His project will focus on propagating seed he collected this summer in Australia and then creating a plant care guide for the plants that are added to the collection. He is pictured planting some of the unique seeds he brought back.

If you happen to be in the Lloyd Driver Orchid Collection in the next few weeks, look up! One of our Nepenthes is bloomi...
08/27/2026

If you happen to be in the Lloyd Driver Orchid Collection in the next few weeks, look up! One of our Nepenthes is blooming! The plant collections in the Botany Greenhouse houses 5 different tropical Nepenthes specimens. Did you know that Nepenthes plants are dioecious? This means that the plant produces male and female flowers on separate plants. Based on the blooms and unopened buds, our plant is male. Male buds are round and ball-shaped while female buds are elongated and oval. Male flowers have a slender stalk ending in an anther with a yellow, pollen-covered surface which looks like a small button. They release yellow dust-like pollen when mature. Female flowers have a small, sticky green platform which is the stigma and is meant to catch pollen. The stigma of a female flower sits atop a swollen vase-shaped base which is the o***y.

It is the first day of classes for fall semester and the greenhouse is ready to welcome all the students. Vlad and I wer...
08/24/2026

It is the first day of classes for fall semester and the greenhouse is ready to welcome all the students. Vlad and I were busy this summer getting ready for their return. Hopefully our work provides an educational, relaxing and quiet space for new and returning students this fall! Here is a little sneak peek of what you might see in the greenhouse this week! Vladimir Dmitriyev Jr.

In July, we posted about our ponytail palm preparing to bloom in the Denise Orndorff Teaching Collection. Well, it’s a b...
08/20/2026

In July, we posted about our ponytail palm preparing to bloom in the Denise Orndorff Teaching Collection. Well, it’s a boy! These plants are dioecious meaning male and female flowers are produced on separate plants and you can only tell upon maturity when they bloom. Our ponytail palm’s flowers opened to show off beautiful white flowers which indicate that it is a male. A female ponytail palm produces pink blooms. Male ponytail palms not only produce a white flower but also release pollen while the female palms eventually would produce papery seed capsules if successfully pollinated. Since our last post we did a little digging and one of the former graduate assistants that worked in the greenhouse, Elizabeth, showed us that it had bloomed in March 2024! Fingers crossed we see another bloom in 2028!

Awhile back we posted about trying to propagate Welwitschia mirabilis to add some new ones to the collection. With the h...
08/19/2026

Awhile back we posted about trying to propagate Welwitschia mirabilis to add some new ones to the collection. With the help of Marlene Simon, the curator, and Ryan Booke at the UC Davis Botanical Conservatory we were able to germinate some new additions. Thank you Marlene and Ryan! Thank you UC Davis Botanical Conservatory!

Friday was Vlad’s last day in the greenhouse this summer. We accomplished a lot of things in the greenhouse together ove...
08/17/2026

Friday was Vlad’s last day in the greenhouse this summer. We accomplished a lot of things in the greenhouse together over the last few months. Vlad worked on repotting, identifying and labeling orchids and other tropical plants. He also helped re-organize portions of the greenhouse to provide more ideal conditions for the plants and helped with many projects. We will miss you! Vladimir Dmitriyev Jr.

Cacao update! We have some more cacao pods starting to form on our trees! Fingers crossed the trees don’t terminate the ...
08/13/2026

Cacao update! We have some more cacao pods starting to form on our trees! Fingers crossed the trees don’t terminate the pods early!

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Buckhout Lab
University Park, PA
16803

Opening Hours

Monday 9:30am - 3pm
Tuesday 9:30am - 3pm
Wednesday 9:30am - 3pm
Thursday 9:30am - 3pm
Friday 9:30am - 3pm

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