Welcome to the SFASU Biology Conservatory Plant Collection! (Version 24.02)

The Biology Department Greenhouse at Stephen F. Austin State University provides space for teaching and research in Botany and the plant sciences. At its core is a conservatory collection of approximately 158 mostly tropical and subtropical taxa from 53 plant families. It provides our community with access to a flora otherwise not found locally. It includes both common houseplants as well as more rare specimens. The collection is housed in a "Rainforest Room" for humid tropical plants and a "Desert Room" for cacti and succulents. This gallery provides a complete set of imagery for the collection and the photos are of actual specimens from the SFASU Biology greenhouse. Family circumscriptions follow the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group classification (APG 1998, 2003, 2009, 2016) for flowering plants and the Pteridophyte Phylogeny Group (2016) for seedless vascular plants.

The images are organized by botanical family. Select "Browse the Gallery" to enter.
The gallery aims to provide students, faculty and the community with access to a flora otherwise not found locally in the east Texas Pineywoods.
The Conservatory is usually open to visitors during Dr. Van Kley's office hours, which are posted on the greenhouse door (T 10:30-12:30 and Th 10:30-1:30 for Fall 2024).
The SFASU Greenthumb Society is a student organization associated with the Biology Conservatory! Their activities include plant-related projects and crafts, plant propogation projects, guest lectures, field excursions, and even music jam sessions! Click link to Follow them on instagram for information about their activities and joining!

What's New

16 October 2024: Version 24.10. Added 44 new images and corrected several misidentifications, particularly among the Cactaceae. We include several spectacular images of our Strelitzia regina (bird of paradise) which flowered recently. The top image on the right is from 'Jam-Out in the Conservatory' recently hosted by our Greenthumb Society on 9/27/24. The Conservatory is open to visitors during Dr. Van Kley's office hours, which for Fall 2024 are Tuesdays 10:30am-12:30pm and Thursdays 10:30am-1:30pm.

20 February 2024: Version 24.02. Added several new species including the cacti Echinocactus texensis (horse crippler), Parodia leninghausii (golden ball cactus), and Rhipsalis baccifera (mistletoe cactus) as well as the humid tropical Ananas comosus (pineapple), Maranta leuconeura (prayer plant), and Murraya koenigii (curry leaf). We also posted spectacular flower shots of our queen of the night cactus, Epiphyllum Oxypetalum and agave-cactus, Leuchtenbergia principis both of which bloomed recently.

28 April 2023: Version 23.04. Added 29 images including several of one of our coffee trees in full bloom!

28 November 2022: Version 22.11. Many plants in the collection are currently in much better condition than they were when the original imagery was taken and their photos were replaced with ones of healthier plants! Several species including Agave desmettiana, Citrus limon, Capsicum annuum, Datura wrightii, Murraya koenigii, Mandevilla sanderi, Capsicum chinense, and others were recently added to the collection. Several misidentifications were corrected. A noteable event was the flowering of of our night-blooming cactus Epiphyllum Oxypetalum in the summer of 2022. Other plants that bloomed since the last update were Aglaonema commutatum, Ceropegia macrocarpa, Dracaena reflexa, Haworthiopsis attenuata, Hoya kerrii, Lenophyllum texanum, Mammillaria elongata, Monstera adansonii, and Philodendron pedatum x squamiferum. As of 11/28/22, The collection consists of 149 taxa in 53 families.

26 December 2021: Several plants bloomed since the last update! They include Syngonium podophyllum (Araceae), Chlorophytum comosum (Asparagaceae), Dracaena angolensis (Asparagaceae), Furcraea hexapetala (Asparagaceae), Callisia fragrans (Commelinaceae), three Kalanchoe species (Crassulaceae), Euphorbia tithymaloides (Euphorbiaceae), Torenia fourneiri (Linderniaceae) and Phalaenopsis (Orchidaceae). The most notable of these are Syngonium, which though a common housplant rarely blooms indoors, and Furcraea, a relative of the agaves that blooms only once in its lifetime. Kalanchoe daigremontiana and K. gastonis-bonnieri are also not frequent bloomers in cultivation. Check out the new shots of these flowers in the galleries! The collection currently consists of about 120 taxa in 40 families.

15 November 2021: Version 21.11. The SFASU Biology Greenhouse Collection Gallery was launched as part of an effort to rehabilitate and curate the collection. The collection currently consists of about 117 taxa in 39 families.