Project Exploration’s Mesozoic Garden was
created for the 2003 Chicago Flower and Garden
Show, held March 8-16th at Navy Pier. The Mesozoic
Garden recreates a primeval river bank as it might
have appeared during the age of the dinosaurs.
A dense, green, misty environment is home to bubbling
water, sounds of insects and amphibians –
and the largest crocodile that ever lived..
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a forty-foot-long, dinosaur-eating crocodile crouches
on the bank of the river protecting a nest of
hatchlings. Surrounding the ancient reptile is
a natural progression of mosses, horsetails, cycads,
ferns, palms, blooming magnolias and conifers.
Learn more about Plants of
the Dinosaur world |
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Project Exploration’s garden brings together representatives
from all plant groups alive at the time of the dinosaurs,
including mosses, horsetails, cycads, ferns, tree ferns,
palms, ginkgoes, blooming magnolias and conifers. Browse
our Species List
Some of the plants, like the Ginkgo, look almost identical
to closely related species that lived millions of years
ago. Some of the plants, like Araucaria, were the dominant
trees of the forest in their day…. 100 million
years ago. The Mesozoic Garden includes a real fossil
tree trunk of Araucaria. It is 135 million years old,
weighs approximately 400 pounds and was discovered in
Africa’s Sahara Desert. Visit
the Plant Image Gallery
Special thanks to Apex Landscaping
for installation sponsorship; the Chicago Park
District horticulturalists, Bukiety,
and Personal Spaces
for garden design assistance; and paleobotanist
Caroline Stromberg of the University of California,
Berkeley.
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