GREENHOUSE

Stapelia sp.

The ESP Greenhouse has grown significantly over the years from its previous building to a temporary trailer and finally to its present new facility (albeit also temporary) at the end of President's Park on the Fairfax campus. For directions, please look for number 25 (G5 using the grid) on the campus PDF map.

The ESP greenhouse was featured in the Mason Gazette on Oct. 1, 2010. It is managed by Monica Marcelli, who uses this facility to support the Biology Undergraduate Program and to collaborate with other institutions. To arrange a visit, please contact Monica directly by email or call 703-993-4043.

Please visit the our Shutterfly page for more pictures of our wonderful plants!

Main support functions

• Plant Biology Labs
• Ecology Labs

Other collaborations

• Mason Garden - GMU's own organic vegetable garden
• Other university greenhouses
• Smithsonian Museum of Natural History

 

PLANT BIOLOGY

The greenhouse supports the Plant Biology Labs (BIOL 304) by providing plant specimens needed for laboratory study.

Coleus plants are used in Plant Biology labs (BIOL 304) for the leaf and hormone labs, as well as in Cell Structure and Function (BIOL 213) labs.	Snapdragons are used for the Angiosperms lab.

 

ECOLOGY

The greenhouse also supports the Ecology Labs (BIOL 307) in much the same way.

Photo courtesy of Evan Cantwell, GMU

 

The following text and photo is from an experiment conducted in the EVPP 643 Microbial Ecology (fall 2011) class taught by Dr. Robert Jonas, Chair, Environmental Science & Policy.

Essentially the goal is to determine the effect of soil type (nutrient poor clay, nutrient rich garden soil, sterilized garden soil and organic rich soil) on rate of nodule formation in soybeans, the effect of bacterial (nitrogen fixing) Rhizobium inoculums of rate of nodule formation, and the effect of sterilization and reinoculation of rate of nodule formation.

Subsequently we will attempt to isolate nodule form bacteria from these plants and identify them. We will attempt to compare the bacteria in the inoculum with those recovered from nodules.

 

MASON GARDEN - ORGANIC VEGETABLE GARDEN

The greenhouse has a close collaboration with the organic vegetable garden at GMU. Mason Garden is located in the courtyard behind the Potomac Heights Residence Building. The vegetable garden provides students with a hands-on experience for creating healthy soil and producing healthy plants. The greenhouse provides plants for Mason Garden, and volunteers from the vegetable garden in turn help out at the greenhouse.

----->See the Mason Garden Crew at the Greenhouse tour slideshow.

OTHER COLLABORATIONS

This greenhouse is also a symbol of an environmentally friendly facility since we use biological control against plant pests, such as Lady Beetles to control Mealy bugs. In the near future, Monica plans to use Nematodes to control Fungus Gnats and Parasitic Wasps to control Whiteflies.

The greenhouse also provides plants to other university greenhouses (tobacco plants were given to the greenhouse manager of the George Washington University). Tomato plants were also given to the Insect Zoo at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History.