Investigate the incredibly diverse plant life of North America and Western Pennsylvania in Hall of Botany. Get lost in beautiful dioramas that depict wildly different biomes from all four corners of the United States. Learn about how animals and humans depend on plants for foods, shelter, medicine, and clothing. Discover how temperature and water affect plants by comparing a Florida everglade, an Alpine meadow on Mt. Rainier, an Arizona desert, and a wooded Pennsylvania valley. Identify herbs by their smells, and learn about photosynthesis and the food chain.
The hall also has several dioramas to show the plants and diverse habitats present in Western Pennsylvania. Local habitats like Lake Erie’s Presque Isle during the summer, a Warren County bog in the fall, and the Allegheny National Forest in the spring are all represented in Hall of Botany.
Meet our Botanists
Learn about the Botany Collection at the Museum
Carnegie Museum’s Herbarium (CM) is the major botanical facility in the Upper Ohio Valley region and ranks among the top 25 herbaria in North America.
Blogs about Botany
Finding Resilience Through Plant Love
Feeling a little extra thankful for spring blooms? Taking extra care of your house plants? Urge to garden a little stronger than usual? …
Joining the iNaturalist Team!
Carnegie Museum of Natural History has promoted participation in the Pittsburgh City Nature Challenge for the past three years. Because I live …
Going Digital for Nature
The Section of Botany continues to make progress on our NSF funded Mid-Atlantic Megalopolis digitization project. This massive three-year effort involves the …
From cultivation to invasion: a common route
Collected on this Day in 1937 This specimen of princess tree (Paulownia tomentosa) was collected on January 13, 1937 in Schenley Park, …
