Harvard’s World-Famous Glass Flowers: Fragile Beauties

On a 30-degree December day in Boston, I walked between rows of flowers. Pale pink orchids, buttery poppies, and purple columbine thrived despite the temperature. Not only that, but banana trees also bore fruit and cacao pods were plump with beans.

How is this possible? It turns out these plants belong to the incredibly lifelike collection of Glass Flowers at the Harvard Museum of Natural History. It’s one of the university’s greatest treasures but not widely known by visitors to Cambridge. The collection comprises over 4,300 glass models of 780 different plant species. All the flowers and plants on display are made of glass, even if my eyes told me otherwise.