Paradise in winter

In a city covered in white and slushy gray, with the mercury dipping below freezing and the trees bare, it’s a relief to step inside MU’s Tucker Hall Botany Greenhouse, where it’s a balmy 74 degrees in the shade and exotic plants are in full bloom.

 “Feels good in here, doesn’t it?” curator Gary Schnurbusch asked.

Schnurbusch, who has maintained the greenhouse for 29 years, brags that the indoor garden is a place to retreat from the snow and see some green. Because most of the plants are from countries below the equator, where it is now summer, they bloom during Missouri’s winter.

“You can’t fool them,” Schnurbusch said.

In the greenhouse’s tropical room, plants grow freely around a small pond where bluegills swim under trickling water and a wooden deck that Schnurbusch built. Giant ferns hang from the ceiling, a banana tree rests in a corner, and pill bugs tunnel through a fallen guava.

If you prefer dry heat, drift along the brick path Schnurbusch laid in the desert room, where a Joshua tree, cacti and other arid and semi-arid plants grow.

Of the thousands of plant species in the greenhouse, none is native to Missouri. The late MU professor David Dunn, a taxonomist, brought most from field studies in Guatemala and Mexico. Schnurbusch said he had to sift through large bags of dirt, seeds and clippings that Dunn collected.

“He would bring huge trash bags, and I would try to root anything he got back,” Schnurbusch said.

Now many of those clippings have grown into full-size trees and flowering plants.

“These plants are never going to look as good as they do in here if you plant them at home in a pot or in soil,” Schnurbusch said.

Maybe it’s something in the water, which is collected from rain on the roof and stored in an underground reservoir. Schnurbusch said natural rainwater or well water is better for plants than treated water.

Another room of the greenhouse has a cacao tree and several types of orchids, including a vanilla orchid that Schnurbusch pollinated by hand to get a vanilla bean that he turned into vanilla flavoring by mixing it with vodka.

Little experiments like this one make greenhouse work more interesting for Schnurbusch, who spends 40 hours a week caring for the plants. He said he doesn’t take breaks because plants don’t take breaks.

“I have eighteen weeks of vacation saved up,” he said.

The plants Schnurbusch grows are for observational study, not scientific research. For instance, he grows tomatoes and peppers so students can examine the similar flowers of the family Solanaceae.

“This has an advantage over drawings or pictures in that students can look at structures from different angles, place the structure in the broader context of the whole plant, feel the texture of the structures, and much more,” said Rainee Kaczorowski, a teaching assistant for a plant taxonomy class at MU. “The greenhouse is an indispensable tool for plant classes and students, and Gary ensures that there are always plants available within it.”

But even people who don’t know a stamen from a stigma are welcome in the greenhouse, which Schnurbusch compares to a museum. As curator, Schnurbusch is talkative with visitors and encourages them to use their senses. Don’t just look at the living stones; smell the orange blossoms and taste the oxalis, he encourages.

“The greenhouse is for student use and for people to come in,” Schnurbusch said. “People see it, but they don’t know they can come in. Well, you just got to come in.”

The greenhouse is open Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.