Image: Deppea splendens

Interpretive Volunteer Updates

Hi everyone,

As days get shorter and cooler, the Gardens are shifting to winter mode. The Japanese Tea Garden's last entry time is now 4:30pm, and last entry at the Botanical Garden is 4pm. The Conservatory of Flowers has become an even more appealing destination on chilly, damp days! 

Read on for news about a holiday gathering just for you, our new Interpretation Program Manager, and some interesting plant information!

Please register for assignments through the links below. 

SAVE THE DATE! Holiday Gathering at the Conservatory of Flowers
Tuesday, December 10, 5-7pm
Conservatory of Flowers

Join your fellow Gardens interpreters for a special after-hours event in the Conservatory. Enjoy light snacks and conversation, then wander the galleries as the winter light show plays across the building and a special sound track adds to the ambiance. It will be a magical experience with great company!

Please RSVP here and we'll provide more information about parking, carpools, and other transit options.

Book Group: The Tree Collectors
Thursday, December 12, 10am-12pm
Helen Crocker Russell Library of Horticulture

All Gardens volunteers are invited to our next Book Group event. The next book group will discuss The Tree Collectors, by Amy Stewart. We hope to see you there!

Register here >> 

Conservatory of Flowers and San Francisco Botanical Garden 
Highland Tropics Gallery and Mesoamerican Cloud Forest: Deppea splendens

Deppea splendens, commonly known as the golden fuchsia, isn’t a true Fuchsia  but a shrub or small tree situated in the coffee family (Rubiaceae). Reaching heights of 5 to 8 meters, this evergreen species is noted for its vibrant, pendulous flowers with yellow petals nestled within maroon calyces. The specimen in the Conservatory is blooming beautifully now, while those outside in the Botanical Garden are less showy.

Native to the cloud forests of Chiapas, Mexico, it is categorized as Extinct in the Wild per the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) Red List. However, Director of Collections and Conservation Ryan Guillou recently reported that additional populations have been found in the wild. We'll provide updates as we learn more!

Conservatory of Flowers
Potted Plants Gallery: Amherstia nobilis

Check out the amazing color and form of the new leaves of this plant from Burma, which is widely grown in cultivation but is extinct in the wild. Many plants in the Conservatory have new growth which is shades of red...but why? A little research found the following possibilities:

- The color is from anthocyanins, pigments produced to protect the developing chlorophylls from damage by sunlight.

- New leaves of jungle trees may be bright red to discourage herbivores, warning them of bitter taste or toxins.

- Some plants use high levels of sugar to drive new foliage growth, and the sugars can cause the new growth to look red.

Perplexed, I checked with Conservatory of Flowers Chief Nursery Specialist Kristen Natoli, who responded:

"What I love most about this story is scientists don’t agree and the take away is some things we can’t explain. It could be all of these things, some of them, or none of them. 

I usually use this specific example of the red new growth to talk about how we overlay explanations for what we observe but don’t always have the means to definitively confirm those explanations."

Conservatory of Flowers:
Register to volunteer:

Japanese Tea Garden:
Enjoy a tour of the Japanese Tea Garden: 

San Francisco Botanical Garden:
Register to volunteer:

Meet Lindzy Bivings, our New Interpretation Program Manager!

Hello All! I am thrilled to join the team at the Gardens. It feels like a natural continuum for me. Over the years my family and I have enjoyed exploring the Gardens during Bean Sprouts Family Days, picnicking at Flower Piano, and catching the blooms at the Conservatory of Flowers. Additionally, I’ve enjoyed professionally being in the orbit of the Gardens Education team, getting to know Annette and others over my years designing programs at the California Academy of Sciences.

In this new role I’m excited to launch our new Interpretive Master Plan that will weave together the unique stories of the Gardens, connecting visitors with the natural world, and designing programs and exhibits that are visitor-centered and designed in collaboration with community members. During this fiscal year I will work with Annette and others on getting new multilingual signs up in the Conservatory of Flowers, designing staff and volunteer workshops, and creating a solid logistical plan for growing and evaluating visitor experiences going forward. Although one of my first projects is at the Conservatory, you can rest assured I will be working across all three gardens as well.

For those of you I have already met, thank you for being so welcoming! For those I have yet to meet, I look forward to getting to know you and learning from your own rich histories, perspectives and experiences. In the next month or so you will get some invitations to meet me in person, but you can also send me an email at lbivings@gggp.org, or connect with me on LinkedIn.

Below is a little teaser of a social media post I worked on with Marissa and Kristen to highlight a bit of information about our charismatic lily pads.

What and who is supporting you these days?

Picture: Emotional support plant supporting emotional support carbs with lovely co-workers keeping my spirits afloat.

We ventured into the pond at the Conservatory of Flowers to learn about fascinating Giant water lily adaptations:

🍀 Q: We noticed the leaves are starting to get smaller in size. Why is that changing in this controlled environment? 🌸 Most of the light that helps plants grow come from sunlight filtered through the Conservatory’s glass. With shorter day lengths each new leaf will be smaller than the one before it. This is different than in the tropics where Victoria amazonica is from because near the equator light levels are relatively constant year-around.

🍀 Q: Will the giant lily pads grow back? 🌸 It’s amazing how quickly the plant rebounds as the days grow longer after the winter solstice. If we’re lucky, we’ll get to observe this plant bounce back with bigger and bigger leaves.

🍀Q: Can we see how large a Giant water lily pad could get in the wild? 🌸 Yes, next time you visit the Aquatic Plants Gallery, look up! We have a beautiful glass and metal model of a full-sized Giant water lily pad and flower. You’ll see the amazing spiderweb-like architecture of veins along the underside. Those veins are spongey and full of air, keeping the leaf (and pizza) afloat! Sometimes you need to be surrounded by your favorite plants. Come visit soon! 💚

Thanks for all you do for our Gardens and our visitors!

Warmly, 
Annette, Jenn and Lindzy

Annette Huddle

Director of Education
Gardens of Golden Gate Park 
(415) 661-1316 Ext. 406
ahuddle@gggp.org

P.S. Did you miss an update? Catch up by viewing past newsletters. 

Gardens of Golden Gate Park

1199 9th Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94122