The Daniel F. and Ada L. Rice Plant Science Center ( a part of Glencoe's Chicago Botanic Garden ) provides laboratories and teaching facilities for more than 200 Ph.D. scientists, land managers, students and interns. Windy City Times spoke with Director of Plant Science and Conservation Kay Havens, Ph.D., and discovered some surprising things about the facility—and plants, in general.
Windy City Times: How long did it take to build the center, and how large is the facility?
Kayri Havens: We broke ground a year ago in June and finished this September. The center is 38,000 square feet [ including the 16,000-square-foot Green Roof Garden ] .
WCT: Let's discuss some of the features. Could you talk about the garden?
KH: Sure. So we have a rooftop garden that's divided into halves, the north half and the south half. On the south half, we've used plants [ native to ] the United States; on the north half, we have plants from all over the world. The roof really is an experiment; it's an evaluation garden where we are trying to broaden the palette of plants that can be used for green roofs. We're trying plants from harsh conditions from around the world. Up on the roof they have to experience greater extremes of temperature, thawing and wind.
WCT: Yes; this will certainly test them. [ Havens laughs. ] So what types of plants do you use?
KH: We're using plants from many temperate areas, including alpine areas. They have to withstand our cold winters and hot summers. We can't go too far up in elevation or too far north.
We have everything up there, from sedum to native grasses like little blue stems to black-eyed Susans. We even have prickly pear cactus. You name it—we're trying it. [ Laughs ]
WCT: The center has many LEED [ Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design ] features.
KH: Yes. The building was designed to be rated LEED gold.
If you visit the building, you'll notice it's up on piers; [ there' also ] a rainwater glen garden surrounding the building that helps filter and catch rainwater. The green roof, of course, is another feature, and we have photovoltaic solar panels all around the perimeter of the roof. The building is designed to allow a lot of daylight in, not only to the offices around the perimeter but it filters down to the common spaces and even the laboratories that are towards the center of the building.
We've used a lot of recycled material; our flooring is made from recycled tires. We've recycled a number of the trees we took down to [ put up ] the building; they're now featured in the black-walnut wall in our library [ as well as ] the planters in our atrium. We also used paints that didn't have a lot of volatile organic compounds.
Also, in order to help people get down to the site, which is about a mile and a half from the train, we have a shuttle that runs from the station to the garden. Once you're at the garden, there's a little solar shuttle that has runs back and forth over the summer months.
WCT: There are several laboratories that specialize in different aspects of [ plant science ] .
KH: Sure. We have nine [ labs ] altogether, including a wonderful, new, large genetics lab that allows us to use modern DNA fingerprinting techniques to study plants. We're the CSI for plants. [ Laughs ] We can do wonderful things like look at a plant population and determine who the fathers of the seeds are; we do paternity tests.
We can also compare how much diversity is left in a wild population to the diversity of plants kept at a botanic garden, for instance. We did that with an extremely endangered Hawaiian plant that's collected by a lot of botanic gardens. During the last hurricane in Hawaii, it was totally wiped out in the wild. We now know what the botanic gardens have and that will help with genetic re-introduction in Hawaii.
We also have a new seed bank—probably my favorite new aspect of the building. We have a huge walk-in seed vault that's about 240 square feet; it's a freezer that keeps seeds at -20 degrees Celsius. When seeds are stored like that, they can last, on average, about 200 years. The seeds will be used for restoration down the road as well as research projects.
WCT: There's also a visitors' gallery?
KH: Yes. There's a large visitors' gallery. So we're open to the public. The gallery is lined with windows that go into the labs. They can see the scientists doing their work. Also, along a railing underneath the windows are all kinds of interpretative materials; they can read about the work we're doing or [ take part in ] interactive video displays.
WCT: Are there any forthcoming additions or enhancements?
KH: By this January, we should have our GIS ( Geographic Information System ) running. It's a mapping tool, basically; it allows us to look at, for instance, the range where a plant will grow, and then overlay on that map soil characteristics, climate [ traits ] , land use, etc., to help us visualize what sites are important for that species. We can also change the climate in order to predict where that plant may occur in the future or where it may need to migrate.
WCT: So the overall goal of the center is plant conservation, correct?
KH: Yes. All of the research is focused on plant conservation; understanding the threats to plants, like climate change, habitat loss and invasive weeds; and trying to come up with ways to mitigate those threats to help plants adapt and survive the challenges we're throwing at them.
WCT: And there are endangered plants just like there are endangered animals?
KH: Yes. In fact, in the U.S. the endangered-species list is 60 percent plants—and we're working with a number of them that occur in the Midwest.
WCT: You hear about animals being on the list, but never plants.
KH: And that's one of the biggest problems for plant-conservation biologists—when you think about endangered species, everyone thinks about animals.
See more about the The Daniel F. and Ada L. Rice Plant Science Center at www.chicagobotanic.org .
