A Winter Ramble Through The Gardens

The Landscapes Of Canada Gardens are to be found at the Canadian Museum of Nature downtown. This occupies an area on the west side of the property, and features plants from four ecosystems of the country. I make a point of coming here and photographing the gardens in each season. I'm planning on paying a visit inside the Museum in February at some point.

The first ecosystem is the Boreal Forest, with a mix of trees, shrubs and other plants, some of that buried by winter snow.

The Prairie Grassland, the next ecosystem, has long grasses and flowers that will start to emerge in spring, but for now are beneath the snow between the path and the museum.

Signage along the path includes photographs and information on each of the ecosystems.

A large sculpture of an iceberg looms over the path.

This view, from the sidewalk, features the Museum, the iceberg, and some hardy plants belonging to the next ecosystem: Arctic Tundra. Most of the plants placed here are under the snow at the moment.

The Mammoth Steppe is the last of the ecosystems represented, with information on signs to the right of the path, while the ecosystem itself is to the left of the path. The plants here were all around in the days of the mammoth, and have survived to the current day. 

They're planted here on the left side, around a family of mammoths in sculpture form. At this time of year, the Steppe plants are all beneath the snow.

Over on the east side of the property, another sculpture set of a mother and baby pair of dinosaurs can be found, of the chasmosaurus irvinensis species.