Matthaei Botanical Gardens

~While in Ann Arbor, Michigan, I visited the amazing Matthaei Botanical Gardens. The Gardens are affiliated with the University of Michigan and are northeast of downtown Ann Arbor, at 1800 N. Dixboro Road. If you're in the area they are well worth visiting.

Here are some pictures that I took while I was there:

Entrance to the gardens

An herb garden, very fragrant.

An interesting monument.

This insect was very busy going from flower to flower.

Next to the main garden is the Gaffield Children's Garden, with kid-friendly activities, mazes, and so forth. Above is a wooden sculpture just inside the garden.

A little cabin in the Children's Garden.

Delphinium.

There was also an Eastern-themed area with a large collection of bonsai plants.

 

Closeup of the figures at the bottom of the previous picture. Two monks enjoying some tea, perhaps?

Also in the Botanical Gardens is a large greenhouse conservatory filled with warm-climate plants. Here in the back is the cactus collection.

As I went towards the front of the conservatory, the exhibits moved to tropical plants. Here in the center are Mediterranean-climate plants.

In the middle of the conservatory.

An interesting sculpture called 'Kaleidoscope', around a plant.

Banyan tree, native to India.

This bizarre-looking tree from Africa (Kigelia africana) is called a "Sausage Tree" or "Cucumber Tree" because of its large hanging fruit.

"Lobster Claw" flowering plant.

View from the front of the conservatory, showing the tropical exhibits.

Apart from thel gardens and the conservatory, the Matthaei Botanical Gardens also include miles of forest trails. This bridge leads across a stream to one of the trails.

A beautiful metallic bronze-colored damselfly. Getting a good picture of this creature was difficult and I took dozens of bad pictures before I snapped this one, since they will quickly fly away if you get too close. Like their cousins, the dragonflies, damselflies are considered to be highly beneficial insects because they eat mosquitos, mosquito larvae, gnats, and other pest insects.

Another damselfly, this one bright metallic viridian-colored.

Along one of the trails there is a labyrinth. Sadly, it lacked a minotaur. Unlike a maze, a labyrinth (this one modeled after Baltic labyrinths from the Middle Ages) are not made to be 'solved'; there's only one path, and it always leads into and out of the center. The idea is to walk the path as a means of contemplation and relaxation. "You go into a maze to lose yourself, and a labyrinth to find yourself."