Winter Garden

A reminder to members of City Daily Photo: the theme for the beginning of March is Reflections In Windows.

It is my tradition each season to show the Landscapes of Canada Gardens. This is at the Canadian Museum of Nature, and presents plants, flowers, trees, and grasses of four distinct ecosystems on the west side of the property. We begin with Boreal Forest. The trees were quiet, and the shrubs beneath snow cover when I came by one morning.

There are some historical plaques around the property. This commemorates John Macoun, a well traveled naturalist and botanist of the 19th and early 20th centuries.

Prairie Grassland is the next area. This time of year, the grasses are hidden beneath the snow.

A sculpture bisects the trail. This is an iceberg by the late Canadian inventor and artist Bill Lishman.

Arctic Tundra  is the next area. Its plants are hidden under the snow.

This view has the Tundra area in the foreground, and the iceberg and museum beyond.

The last area is Mammoth Steppe, where plants that existed in their time are still around today. As with other areas, they're beneath the snow.

They are concentrated around a set of statues of a mammoth family. The Museum, with its Queens Lantern containing a model of the Moon, lies beyond.