Archive for July 26th, 2009

This weekend I spent some time in San Francisco with my family. We spent much of the day in Golden Gate Park, including a visit to the Conservatory of Flowers. It is a small living museum of rare tropical plants.

The museum is split into different rooms, each with their own climate. The East most room houses a pond featuring victoria amazonica. These huge water lilies have brilliant purple flowers and, like much of what lives in the Amazon, pointy “teeth.” These floating leaves of these lilies can reach 3 meters in diameter. The edges of the leaves curl upward creating what looks like large dinner platters floating on the water. Read the rest of this entry »