Normally when someone thinks about the Missouri Botanical Garden (MoBot), they picture thousands of colorful flowers and tropical plants. This year, the Garden will be highlighting trees during their TREEmendous exhibition. This show is the Garden’s way of honoring the United Nations’ “International Year of Forests.”

“It was a combination effort of all our staff to make something fun for our guests to celebrate,” Karen Hill, Public Information Officer for MoBot, said.

Some of the major activities and events that MoBot will have to celebrate are The Extreme Tree House Exhibit , The Great St.Louis Tree Hunt, The TREEmendous Interactive Discovery Center, The Arbor Day Tree Giveaway, and The Forest Festival.

The Extreme Tree House Exhibit consists of ground-level structures located around the Garden that experiment with a variety of non-traditional designs. All of the selected designs on display were pre-screened to ensure they are different and unique.

“I think people will be excited to see the Tree House Exhibit because it’s unconventional, and they all have such interesting structures,” Hill said. “It’s not something that someone would usually picture.”

The Great St. Louis Tree Hunt is a scavenger-type hunt throughout the St. Louis Metro area. Participants are able to download a guidebook and a map identifying the locations of TREEmendous trees. There is even a reward for finding and recording 15 of the 30 special trees.

“This sounds like fun and hopefully people will learn more about how important trees are,” Ecology Club President Chelsea Norman said.

The TREEmendous Interactive Discovery Center is a handson activity center where participants learn and interact with trees. Activities range from tree-related artwork to tree story-telling to educational exhibits.

“People need to learn how important plants and trees are to our society,” Norman said.

The ultimate purpose of TREEmendous is to support the Missouri Botanical Garden’s mission to discover and share knowledge about plants and their relationship to the environment.

“I think it’ll get people to appreciate trees more and see that they’re there for beauty and for use while keeping in mind the importance they have for our planet,” Hill said.

By: Christy Maupin