DENVER- Denver Botanic Gardens' highly anticipated new exhibit, The Cloud Forest Tree in Marnie's Pavilion, officially opens to the public on January 29, 2003. This newest exhibit at the Gardens has been a work-in-progress for nearly ten years and will finally come to fruition showcasing hundreds of beautiful, sweet-scented orchids and other rare plants that have never been seen by visitors before.

Coined as a "living sculpture", the gigantic 20 by 40 foot tree is formed not of roots and wood, but steel, foam and plastic. Actual cork bark covers the entire tree, where hundreds of blooming orchids and other epiphytes (plants that grow on other plants, but are not parasites) will be rotated into the exhibit. Many of the orchids grow directly on the bark, as they would be found in nature.

"One of the great things about The Cloud Forest Tree is that it will constantly change as our collection of over 3,000 plants will be rotated as they bloom," said Nick Snakenberg, Denver Botanic Gardens' Curator of Orchids. "Orchids are the most geographically widespread plant in the world with species from places such as Asia, Africa, South, North and Central America and Australia. The Cloud Forest Tree will bring plants from all these places together in one unique space."

The Gardens' extensive and rare collection of orchids, bromeliads and other epiphytes has been kept behind doors in greenhouses that are not accessible to the public due to space limitations. The Cloud Forest Tree will allow the Gardens to showcase these collections in a unique and natural environment.

The exhibit is the result of a vision provided by Jim Flor, a long-time volunteer and financial supporter of the Gardens. His experiences while living in jungle habitats in Malaysia and Brazil triggered the original idea, which Snakenberg's expertise and dedication helped bring to fruition.

"The Cloud Forest Tree is a very important addition to Denver Botanic Gardens because the most common question for years at the Information Desk was 'Where are the orchids?'" said Jim Flor. "It has truly exceeded all my expectations."

The term "cloud forest" refers to high, moist areas in Southeast Asia, Africa and Central and South America. Half-hidden by low hanging clouds, trees compete for space in the lush, tangled vegetation of the tropical cloud forest. Mossy, wet branches can be covered with an exotic array of plants and animals, including orchids. The Gardens' Cloud Forest Tree includes cloud forest inhabitants, as well as plants from drier locations at lower altitudes and man-made hybrids. Additionally, carnivorous plants will also be showcased, such as Venus Fly Traps and Pitcher Plants.

Rooted a mile high, the newly designed Denver Botanic Gardens has been a favorite Denver destination for 51 years, and has gained a national reputation as one of the top urban gardens. Art and science unite in the Gardens' spectacular 23-acre urban oasis, offering an unforgettable artistic garden experience for the whole family, as well as a living laboratory for education and plant conservation programs. Additional sites at Chatfield Nature Preserve, a 700-acre wildlife and native plant refuge in Littleton, and Mt. Goliath, a high altitude trail and interpretive site on the Mt. Evans Scenic Byway, extend this experience throughout the Front Range.

Denver Botanic Gardens is located at 1005 York Street in Denver, Colorado. Visit us at www.botanicgardens.org or call 720-865-3500 for more information. Denver Botanic Gardens thanks the citizens who support the Scientific and Cultural Facilities District.

In climates with humid atmospheres, some plants live upon other plants, using them as a means of support. These plants are known as epiphytes. Unlike parasites, these plants derive no nourishment from their hosts but use them only as a means to acquire adequate light and space in a crowded forest. Because epiphytes are not rooted in the forest floor, they have to obtain water and nutrients in other, often amazing manners. Epiphyte is a descriptive term, like "tree", rather than a group of related plants. In fact, epiphytes come from many diverse plant families including orchids, bromeliads, ferns, cactus, rhododendrons as well as lichens and mosses.

Orchids make up one of the largest and most widespread families of all flowering plants. Many species have developed remarkable shapes, scents and colors to facilitate their highly evolved pollination processes. Oftentimes, an orchid species will form an exclusive "partnership" with a single wasp species, and can only be pollinated by that species. While most orchids live in the tropics, they can be found on all continents except Antarctica. In fact, 27 species are native to Colorado. While most orchids are epiphytic, there are many species that grow terrestrially. In epiphytic orchids, the roots can still absorb water and nutrients from the air and leaf run-off, but if you look closely, you will see they are also green. These roots are photosynthetic.

Epiphytic cacti are native to South and Central American rainforests. Unlike most cacti, which live in arid desert conditions, epiphytic cacti growing in rainforests may receive up to 150 inches of rainfall each year. However, high up in a tree, rainwater is gone almost as soon as it falls from the sky. The same water storing ability of desert succulent plants is often vital for survival of epiphytic cacti and many other epiphytic plants (notice the thick leaves of orchids and bromeliads). Some popular epiphytic cacti include Epiphyllum (Orchid cacti), Schlumbergera (Christmas cacti) and Rhipsalidopsis (Easter cacti). While epiphytic cacti are not as common in the more constantly wet cloud forest environs, there are a few widespread species, with Hylocereus (one of a few genera commonly called night-blooming cereus) being the most well-known.

Epiphytic ferns have developed various strategies that enable them to trap leaf litter and humus, which hold nutrients and water for the ferns (and which can form a soil in which other plants, even those normally confined to the forest floor, can grow). "Nest" ferns, such as Asplenium species, form rosettes of leaves or tangled roots to catch litter while "shield" or staghorn ferns, such as Platycerium species, have clasping basal leaves that provide a protected cavity where humus can accumulate. Other ferns may have creeping rhizomes that seek out moist nooks and crannies in the trees surface, and the soils that can form in those places.

Bromeliads are members of a large family of plants native to tropical and semi-tropical areas of the western hemisphere. Often grown as houseplants, they are admired for their colorful, long lasting bracts. The most familiar bromeliads are the Pineapple, Spanish Moss and the Silver Vase Plant. Many bromeliads grow in the shape of a rosette with overlapping leaves that form a central "cup" capable of holding large amounts of water. This water not only nourishes the plant in times of drought but also serves as a miniature ecosystem for frogs, snakes, scorpions, worms and insects. In epiphytic bromeliads, the leaf surface emulates roots in being able to absorb both nutrients and water. The organic soups that accumulate in these pitchers function as the bromeliads' soil.

While carnivorous plants are photosynthetic like most other plants and therefore produce their own carbon, they tend to grow in soils that are deficient in nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorous. In order to obtain these nutrients, carnivorous plants evolved mechanisms to attract, capture and digest insects and other animals. Carnivorous plants use a myriad of lures, odors and leaf patterns to attract their prey. Many of us know of the Venus Fly Trap, but there are actually over 600 other species of carnivorous plants in the world today. Capture mechanisms range from the folding "jaws" of the Fly Trap to sticky pads, to elaborate pitcher traps in which insects fall into a pool of digestive liquid. The cloud forest is home to many carnivorous plants, including pitcher plants (Nepenthes spp.), sundews (such as Drosera spatulata) and butterworts (Pinguicula spp.). Epiphytic bladderworts (Utricularia) can be mistaken for the orchids amongst which they grow because of their dramatic flowers.

Not photosynthetic like plants, fungi have to rely on external sources for their food supply, much like animals do. Fungi are decomposing organisms that feed on plant remains, digesting the debris and turning it into compost that nourishes the living forest. The fungi depend on the continual supply of plant debris that falls from the forest canopy while the forest itself is dependent on the compost manufactured by these decomposers.

Although resembling palms, cycads are not flowering plants, instead having cones similar to horsetails (Equisetum) or conifers. Cycads are an ancient group of plants that evolved nearly 300 million years ago, appearing on earth before the dinosaurs. During the Jurassic period, cycads made up nearly 20% of the world flora. In the past, cycads had a global distribution and today they occur on every continent except Europe and Antarctica with the greatest diversity being in tropical and subtropical areas. Despite this long history on earth, many cycads are facing extinction in the wild. Most cycads grow slowly and reproduce infrequently which compounds problems of habitat destruction and plant poaching. In an effort to save these living fossils, breeding programs have been developed at a number of institutions and some countries have begun implanting wild cycads with computer chips to deter poachers.

Vanilla flowers occur in large clusters but only one or two open at a time and last only one day. Since they are short lived, the flowers are hand pollinated by plantation workers to insure the highest yield. The seedpods of the vanilla orchid are harvested while still green and then cured to produce the vanilla extract. Vanilla culture began in Mexico by the Aztecs nearly 1000 years ago then spread to Spain in the early 1500's. Thomas Jefferson brought vanilla to the United States in the late 1700's. Today, Madagascar, Mexico and Tahiti are the largest producers of vanilla.

 
               Gardeners in the West Have New Information Source:
               "Great Gardening Guides" by Denver Botanic Gardens

Western home gardeners have long been dependent on horticultural
information developed in Europe and the eastern United States-usually
of little relevance for our dry, cold-in-the-winter/hot-in-the-summer
continental climate and frequently alkaline soils. Now, however, there
is a new source of practical, plain-talk gardening information for the
West: Denver Botanic Gardens "Great Gardening Guides."

The ÒGreat Gardening GuidesÓ are a series of colorful, easy-to-read,
16-page brochures produced by the staff of Denver Botanic Gardens
especially for Coloradans and others in the Rocky Mountain West. Each
covers a single area of gardening. The first five are now available: They are
No.1,  Composting; No. 2, Water-Smart Gardeningª; No. 3, Container Gardening;
No. 4, Environmentally Friendly Gardening; and No. 5,
Perennials. (ÒWater-Smart GardeningÓ is a trademark of Denver Botanic Gardens.)

The Great Gardening Guides are free but available, one copy of each,
only by telephone order: 1-800-944-8066.

DBG's "Great Gardening Guides" were made possible by funds from the Scientific &
Cultural Facilities District. This special taxing district was enabled by the
Colorado Legislature in 1988 and approved by voters of Adams, Arapahoe, Boulder,
Denver, Douglas and Jefferson counties to raise funds for the educational,
cultural and arts groups in the metropolitan Denver area. Denver Botanic Gardens
is one of the institutions whose programs receive this support.

"Composting" gives advice on converting organic matter such as leaves and
kitchen scraps into a valuable soil conditioner. It explains the benefits of
compost such as water conservation and plant nutrition and how to make and use
it.

"Water-Smart Gardening" tells how to save water and still have a beautiful yard.
It shows how good planning and design team up with choosing the right plants for
the right spot can help conserve this resource so scarce in the West

"Container Gardening" promotes the use of pots, hanging baskets and decorative
planters to enliven patios and other soil-less areas. It not only tells how to
design and plant, but offers advice on which plants to grow, from herbs to
brilliant flowers.

"Environmentally Friendly Gardening" cuts to the heart of the problem of trying
to grow thriving plants without jeopardizing the health of our children, pets
and neighbors. Besides listing unfriendly practices, it sets gardeners on a
course of positive choices.

"Perennials" does more than suggest reliable plants for our region. It
also tells how to plan, design, prepare the soil and plant the plants to achieve
a home landscape that gets prettier and prettier, year after year, with a
minimum of effort.

Additional brochures in the "Great Gardening Guides" series will be produced in
1993. Information will be released as they become available.

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           Calendar Item: Free Day at Chatfield Arboretum September 4

Denver Botanic Gardens' Chatfield Arboretum will have free
admission Saturday, August 7. Hours ae 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

A special activity from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. will offer familes with children Òa
honey of a dealÓ: They will take a safe, close-up look at a working bee hive and
taste freshly harvested honey still in its honeycomb. Children may also make a
beeswax candle to take home.

A visit to the arboretum is suitable for all ages. Picnic facilities are
available. For information call 973-3705.

The arboretum, southwest of Littleton, may be reached by driving one-quarter
mile west on Deer Creek Canyon Road from south Wadsworth Boulevard, just south
of Highway C-470.