What’s That? The Paleontologist’s Cottage

The Paleontologist’s Cottage, blanketed in bromeliads and staghorn ferns, both of which have ties to the Mesozoic Era.

At the Morris Arboretum & Gardens, Penn’s 90-year-old, 92-acre expanse in the northwest corner of Philadelphia. Through Sept. 30, the Arboretum is hosting “Plants in the Age of Dinosaurs,” an exhibition focusing on prehistoric plants like ferns and conifers, which have survived for millennia, evolving through time.

The Paleontologist’s Cottage is a seasonal structure made of reclaimed barn materials, “essentially a giant steel pegboard” decorated for the seasons, says Vince Marrocco, director of horticulture. “Right now, it’s holding up hundreds of bromeliads all over the cottage, to kind of give it that primordial sort of feel,” with sand tables and fossils that also tie in with the Mesozoic theme.

“Part of our mission is to connect people with plants,” Marrocco says. “Who doesn’t like dinosaurs as a little kid?”

Arboretum, he says, means “tree museum.” The most ancient species at Morris, dawn redwoods and the Cathay silver fir, “were around when dinosaurs were stomping the earth and were essentially part of the diet for some of those dinosaurs,” Marrocco says.

Both species exist in the fossil record but have become rare in modern times. By the 1940s, dawn redwoods had been reduced to one little grove growing along a streambed in a narrow valley in China, Marrocco says. “We were very fortunate to have seedlings of those plants.” Now thriving at around 130 feet tall, the dawn redwoods at Morris were planted along a stream bank in alluvial soil because earlier horticulturists speculated that those specific conditions were necessary for the plants to survive. “Now we’ve learned, dawn redwoods will grow anywhere,” making the question of how the trees became reduced to one isolated valley even more intriguing, Marrocco says. Cathaya is a new plant for the Arboretum and the progenitor for all pines. Once spread across the entire Northern Hemisphere, this plant species is now incredibly rare, confined to a couple of populations in central China, Marrocco says. “These plants are called ‘the panda of the botanical world’ because the plants that are left are old, aging plants that aren't reproducing well,” he says. “There’s been a concerted effort to distribute these plants and understand their genetics and to make sure that we can conserve their germplasm.” Morris Arboretum & Gardens ties in the history of plants, “so that people gain understanding of the value of plants in our world,” Marrocco says.