Spectacular, Surreal and Surprising, Nancy Steven, February's 2021 Zoom meeting

 The unusual title of our first talk of the year could not have been more accurate. If you had only ever thought that you could grow flowers and vegetables in your garden then you were mistaken. Nancy Steven’s wonderful talk showed us how horticulture is no longer confined to fields and gardens, plants are being grown in space and underwater.

Plants are being successfully grown in the International Space Station, 250 miles above the Earth, or as Nancy put it “ One Giant Leaf for Mankind”. One of the most popular and successfully grown plants is the Thale Cress also called the Mouse Ear Cress, this is because the cress completes its life cycle in 6 weeks so is ideal to study. 

In contrast to growing in space research is being conducted into underwater farming, although currently very expensive this method has other benefits, there is no need to use pesticides as no pests can enter the underwater growing pod and it conserves water as the water in the pod condenses to provide fresh water.

Nancy also told us about some usual and exotic plants, in particular the Monkey Orchid from Ecuador, which grows between 6 and 10 inches tall whose flowers look just like monkey faces. Photo below. Nancy’s presentation was most professional with remarkable and unusual slides, along with fascinating facts and commentary.  Our thanks go out to Nancy.