The Biology greenhouses are located on the sixth floor of the Biological Science building on the U of A campus. These glass greenhouses cover an area of 425 square meters and are partitioned into twenty-two separate rooms. There are two full time staff whose primary duties are to grow and maintain the plants for use by the department for teaching purposes and research. A large permanent collection of plants is maintained which consists of approximately 1,100 species with well over 3,000 individual plants. Since there are approximately half a million known species of plants in the world, no collection could possibly house every species. Instead, this collection has representative samples from all the major plant groups including mosses and ferns up to the higher plants like gymnosperms (pines, etc) and angiosperms (grasses, flowers, etc.). There is also an extensive list of live plants to be grown each term for specific classes/labs that are not considered part of the permanent collection but do constitute an major portion of the plants used by students.

Part of the permanent collection is in greenhouses called the zonobiomes. The purpose of a zonobiome greenhouse is to show students the effect that climate and geography has on plants. These greenhouses contain representative samples of plants from the eight major plant zones of the world growing in a natural setting. Beginning with a steamy tropical greenhouse and going through the Mediterranean, desert, temperate, prairie, and boreal zones, a student can see first-hand the rich variety of life forms shaped by the abiotic forces over the eons. This concept gives a much broader ecological perspective than could be achieved otherwise. The close contact with plants both reinforces and adds to the classroom experience.

Along with supplying the plants for classes and labs, information and materials (seed, soil, etc.) are provided to students to set up lab experiments. Similarly, help is given to many graduate students and academics to set up their projects. Although we do not actually do the research work, there are demands on a regular basis for technical information and supplies needed for various types of research.

Another role accomplished by the greenhouse staff involves working with the public. School groups from kindergarten to grade 12 regularly come in for an educational tour of the greenhouses. There is also a steady stream of phone calls from the general public looking for information on plants.