University of Washington Botany Greenhouse

I was a student in Classics 205, a three-​credit class that included a «field trip» to the botanical garden. I loved that class, and not just because it included a little excursion in May 2011 to the beautiful house of exotic plants on campus. But now that I’m introduced to the place, I might as well review it and talk about all the plants I saw and the long Latin names that they’ve been given.
The house is made of glass and is humid inside for obvious reasons. The plants themselves are quite varied; some are potted, some are in water, some are encased in glass, some are even hanging from above. It’s not in every garden in the world that you get to see so much floral diversity in such a small space.
My assignment here was to break down the plants’ names and deduce what they mean. In addition to being able to witness all these wonderful plants close up, I got to analyze the meanings of Drosera binata dichotoma, Podocarpus macrophyllus, Pleurothallis leptifolia, just to name a few. You can copy and paste those names into Google to see that I’m not making any of this up.
And the best part of this all is that it’s free! This class didn’t even cost me any extra tuition, but entrance is free of charge as well. The place is open to the public, and let’s be honest. Where else can you go to see these plants first hand? It’s like a zoo for plants, but it’s on the UW campus and you can just walk in. Plus, it made learning fun! How totally cool is that?