If there is ever a time to go to the Botanic Gardens, it’s on Earth Day. Having never gone before, it was a great experience to explore a part of Cornell that I hadn’t been to, especially with senior year right around the corner. The Conserving Native Orchids talk was very informative. Since my mom loves orchids (and always manages to kill them), I knew that they had a very particular way of growing. During the talk, I learned more about the conditions that orchids need to even be able to grow, and how preservation efforts are going.

I never knew how many orchids were native to our New York area. As they were going through some of the ones that can be seen in different parks, I was astounded with the sheer number of different species of orchids there were. I was able to see how different orchids can look from one another, especially since because before the talk, I had only seen one kind of orchid and had based my perception on that.