Volunteer Park Conservatory cycads, and orchids, visitors will find banana ("Musa"), Bird of Paradise ("Strelitzia"), "Anthurium" and ginger (Zingiberaceae) in this house. The conservatory’s orchid collection, which began as a gift from Mrs. Anna H. Clise in 1921, is also found in the Palm House. Orchids are a large and diverse flowering plant family composed of more than 20,000 species. The conservatory’s collection includes representatives of the largest genera – "Bulbophyllum", "Epidendrum", and "Dendrobium" – as well as commonly cultivated genera such as "Cattleya" and "Phalaenopsis". Transporting endangered orchids is prohibited by the Convention of International Trade of Endangered Species (CITES) and many
Flowering Locus C Flowering Locus C Flowering Locus C ("FLC") is a MADS-box gene that in late-flowering ecotypes of the plant "Arabidopsis thaliana" is responsible for vernalization. In a new seedling "FLC" is expressed, which prevents flowering. Upon exposure to cold, less "FLC" is expressed (to a degree depending on the amount of cold), and flowering becomes possible. "FLC" is extensively regulated through epigenetic modifications and transcriptional control. The expression of "FLC" is affected by other genes including "FLK", "FCA" and "VERNALIZATION2" ("VRN2"). Wild "Arabidopsis" plants have different alleles for the "FLC" gene, which correspond to ecotypes which either (a) flower rapidly and