What dead flowers tell us about the future of life on Earth
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Amid an extinction crisis, dried plant collections capture how the world is changing. But Duke University is planning to shut down its world-renowned herbarium.

By poring over nearly 200 of these pressed orchids, collected by botanists between 1886 and 2022 and stored in drawers at Duke University’s herbarium and elsewhere, scientists found that the flowers are now blooming 12 days earlier on average than they did 150 years ago. At this rate, the orchids may eventually bloom before bees are fully out and about, cutting the chances that pollen catches a ride to other pink lady’s slippers and that plants procreate.

Duke University is planning to permanently close their herbarium.