Greenhouse Effect

Off the beaten path Dartmouth's secret garden draws—and presents—a diverse crowd.

Mother Nature thrusts nearly every imaginable weather condition on Hanover, from icy and overcast to sunny and sweltering, but there's one corner of campus—the Murdough Greenhouses—where it's always balmy.

"You're in this little tropical bubble. It's wonderful and light and green and warm," says Nicole Conroy '03, who works as a greenhouse assistant.

The public greenhouses, located on the fifth floor of the Gilman Life Sciences Laboratory south of DMS, teem with a diverse collection of plants, from climbing ferns and palm trees to coffee plants and cacti.

Conroy prunes vines, repots orchids and periodically oils leaves to remove dust and bugs. In return, the plants provide a lush sanctuary and endless source of wonder. "This winter a bird of paradise plant bloomed, which is incredible because they're supposed to bloom only when they are 30 feet tall, and this one was only about 15 feet," Conroy says.

The College built the Murdough Greenhouses, which consist of six glass-enclosed rooms covering about 2,500 square feet, in 1964 with a gift from Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Gordon Murdough '26. But the greenhouses—and their inhabitants—resided in relative obscurity for several decades. "There were people who didn't know there was a greenhouse on campus," says Lisa Palmer, the greenhouses' manager and curator. That changed in 1996 with the addition of the Brout Orchid Collection, the largest public orchid collection in New England (see "The Orchid Giver," next page). The current guestbook lists visitors from New Mexico, Norway, Italy and the United Kingdom.

Professors use the greenhouses for research and teaching. Biology professor Rebecca Irwin has filled one of the greenhouses with Carolina jessamine, a vine that produces yellow, tubular flowers. She is studying why it produces a toxic compound in its nectar, even though the toxin doesn't appear to benefit the plant.

Irwin, with help from a full-time technician and five undergraduates, brings Carolina jessamine cuttings in from the field and creates clones in the greenhouse. As the plants grow, Irwin and her students collect their leaves, flowers and nectar to determine whether the toxic compound levels are the same in each type of tissue.

Irwin moved her plants to Dartmouth last September, when she began working at the College. She previously taught at the University of Georgia, where her plants could grow outside for a good part of the year. "I would not have come to Dartmouth if there were no greenhouse facilities," she says.

Irwin regularly brings greenhouse plants to her classroom to give students an up-close look at plant structures and dechanisms. "The greenhouses are a great teaching tool," she says. "They allow students to get involved in active research. They are a great way in the winter for students to have hands-on access to organisms."

The greenhouses attract more than scientists and students. On snowy days that force schools to close, parents bring their children. Photographers regularly make the greenhouses their subject. And last winter two botanical artists spent time in the greenhouses with their watercolors and acrylics. "When people have their lunch here or draw or study, that's what I like to see," says Palmer.

"This place is here to be used. It's not here to be locked up."

Palmer notes a strong correlation between the number of visitors and hours of daylight. As the days grow shorter, the greenhouses operate strong, specialized plant lights for more hours. "We definitely get a peak of visitors in the winter when Hanover is so gloomy," Palmer says. "Here it's 80 degrees, 80 percent humidity. It's a tropical oasis."

Day Care.Lisa Palmer, Murdough Greenhouses' manager and curator, checks on her charges.

ABIGAIL KLINGBEIL writes on a variety ofsubjects from Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Visitor information The greenhouses are free to the public from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday, except holidays. They are located on the fifth floor of the Gilman Life Sciences Laboratory. For more information, call (603) 646-2382, or visit www.dartmouth.edu/~grnhouse/.