Educational Resources
Welcome to our digital archive! This site has been designed to educate children on the Botanical Gardens at the University of Michigan. Guided by each page’s “next button” your kids can independently, digitally explore various gardens at the University of Michigan. Additionally, located on each page of the archive, we have provided various educational activities on each page to keep your kids engaged and learning for hours. The following databases and sites were used to gather information for our archive, and they are great resources for additional research!
- The Peony Garden Photograph Database: Here, you and your child or student can explore pages and pages of peonies! Click on a photograph to view statistics and information about that cultivar. In the summer, you can even visit your favorite cultivars at Nichols Arboretum's Peony Garden!
- University of Michigan Herbarium Catalog Collection: In this database, you and your child or student can explore a real online tool used by scientists and botanists at the University of Michigan. The Herbarium is home to the university's collection of botanical specimens. They have been digitized on this database. Explore it with your child or student and encourage them to collect a specimen from your yard or environment.
- The Matthaei-Nichols Living Collections Database: This extensive database provides an interactive map of the living speciments held by the Matthaei Botanical Gardens and Nichols Arboretum. Use this database to research specific plants, natural areas, or cultivated gardens with your child or student. There are additional maps below focusing on certain gardens or types of plants, making this an excellent resource for learning more about the holdings of the gardens or for planning a visit.
- The Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University: Some of the plant photographs in our archive came from the Arnold Arboretum's Plant Collections. This living "museum of trees" is a highly regarded and incredibly beautiful arboretum, and their website is full of things to explore.
- The Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History Botany Archive: We used the Smithsonian's Plant Photo Archive as a source for some of our images, but the Smithsonian's Botany Archive contains so much more! Use the keyword search to explore botanical specimens or botanical art with your child or student.
Click Next to read a Project Description of this Archive.