Housing everything from banana plants and coconut palms to Iowa’s largest crop of cotton, the Bessey Greenhouse is a unique collection of rare crops and plants gathered from all around the world.

Built in 1967 and recently renovated to maximize use of the available space, the greenhouse now holds anywhere from 800 to 1,000 different plant species, said Steve Mahoney, full-time manager of the greenhouse.

“Our function primarily is for research, teaching and plant collection,” Mahoney said. “I like to think of it as sort of a ‘zoo’ of plants — for observation and representation of many of the different plant families.”

Just as a zoo requires full-time caretaking and watch, the greenhouse requires attention 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

“The plants need care 365 days out of the year, even on Christmas,” Mahoney said.

“We are open regular business hours during the week, and we have student employees on the weekend — I am the only full-time worker here, on-call 24/7 if anything goes wrong.” Situations might arise with anything from computer error to problems with the heating and cooling, he said.

Since the greenhouse is inside and temperatures are controlled through a computer, the varying seasons don’t really affect plant life.

However, there are a few changes made along with the shorter days and lack of sunshine during winter. “The environment is constant year-round — but supplemental lights are added during winter to make up for the lack of heat and daylight,” said Jonathan Wendel, botany professor. “What exactly is done varies daily due to the unpredictability of the weather — the lights could be turned on simply to mask a cloudy day.”

The environmental control system for Bessey is run by computer, which controls individually the temperatures and lights for each of the 21 separate rooms, Mahoney said.

“Each room has its own controlled environment which is programmed based on the plants individual needs in order to be healthy and survive,” he said.

Among the varieties of plants found in the greenhouse are banana crops, the cacao (chocolate) plant, bamboo, cactus, pineapples and even insect-eating plants, Mahoney said.

“We hold some rare species here that one would be surprised to find growing in Iowa,” he said. “Our claim to fame currently is Iowa’s largest crop of cotton. We have a huge collection of cotton brought in from all around the world that is currently being researched.”

Despite the abundance of cotton, the actual number of plants grown there within a family can be quite small, Mahoney said. Some of the rare species the greenhouse holds may only have two or three actual plants represented.

Bessey Greenhouse offers an excellent learning and research facility to even those not involved in botany, Wendel said.

“The greenhouse is such an interesting place to visit and you can see and learn new things every time you come,” Mahoney said. “On a cold snowy day Bessey greenhouse is a warm welcoming environment for anyone.”