I finally went to the U.S. Botanic Garden Conservatory for the first time last weekend. Strangely enough, I've been twice to their greenhouse complex that is only open to the public once a year, but never made it downtown next to the Capitol building to see the conservatory. It's not large, but the central part is very tall and beautiful, with an elevated walkway. Here is a double row of Royal Palms, I assume.

Chambeyronia macrocarpa:

Sabal causiarum (Puerto Rican Hat Palm), Hyophorbe verschaffeltii (Spindle Palm), and I-don't-know-what:

There were a couple of potted Areca vestiaria, and a beautiful African Oil Palm. When you see this one, it's hard to imagine people complaining about overplanting it!

Pritchardia hillebrandii, Encephalartos lehmannii.

Some photos from the skywalk:

On to the bamboo! The 1st 2 photos are of Bambusa textilis and the 3rd is Bambusa vulgaris 'Vittata'.

I had not seen a Cacao tree before--I had no idea they were so beautiful!

Musa 'Praying Hands', Heliconia 'Hot Rio Nites', unknown flower/bromeliad.

And the views outside the building are great, too.

Tough to get a tourist to take a good picture when you can't speak their language and tell them how your camera works, though

There are a couple of outdoor gardens, too, but it was too hot for that, so I'll just have to go and visit another time.

Speaking of which, it took me forever to get there. Every Memorial Day weekend, the freeways are jammed due to 'Rolling Thunder', the motorcycles of mostly Vietnam Vets that come through. It pays to know where the Harley Davidson dealerships are on this weekend, and avoid them! I was stuck for an hour one Memorial Day weekend in a little town with a Harley dealership. It's amazing how many motorcycles there are for this event. They're all well-behaved and organized, but it's just a massive amount of motorcycles. So, I took the metro in, and in their wise management, they chose this weekend to shut down the track for construction of the new line out to Dulles airport, and bussed us around that part. No notice at the metro station I entered of this, one stop away, though.

Nice... I visited the conservatory a couple weeks ago as well...Very relaxing place w/ tons of inspiration.

Great photos. They give this native Washingtonian fond memories of childhood visits to that magical place.

Thanks for the pics Mark! That was fun!

Mark,

It looks like there's some really nice stuff planted there. Well worth the visit to me. In post #3-3 that's an Arenga species, maybe either A. westerhoutii or A. pinnata. Not real sure from your picture.

Jeff

Thanks for the comments! And the ID too, Jeff. A wonderful place to visit for itself, and also everything surrounding it.

great pix! they did a great job with the plants.

I went back to the Mall last weekend, but no great plant pictures this week. Went to the Hirshorn Museum, which had a big display of paintings that were a single color. Must have been valuable, because we weren't allowed to take photos of them. Coincidentally The Economist had an article last week on the artist, including this: "...an orchestra played his one-chord “Monotone Symphonie” while the artist, dressed in evening tails and white gloves, directed a group of naked women to smear themselves with the blue pigment he patented as “International Klein Blue” and roll about on canvas or cardboard. (A large work from this series sold at Christie’s in New York earlier this month for $12.4m.)".

At least I got to see some art I could appreciate in the Freer Gallery. It's not Bali, Paul, but I think you'll like these! The 1st statue is around 4-6 feet tall, and the 2nd has an arm on the side for scale.

I like the 4 figures in the first picture--if you've been to a Buddhist temple, you may have seen giant versions of the "Four Heavenly Kings" guarding the entrance. I can't remember for sure...you might not be able to take photos in Buddhist temples, which would explain why I had trouble finding photos of these floor-to-ceiling-size statues on the web. I finally was able to find some photos on Chinese web sites. If you're feeling culturally-inclined at the moment, you can look at:

http://www.17u.com/blog/article/133950.html -- in photos 3-6

http://club.pchome.net/thread_2_4_733454.html -- in photos 4-5 and others in 8-9

Chinese wikipedia page for the Four Heavenly Kings

ommmmmmmmmmmm.