A UF environmental horticulture professor has developed an orange plant for the Gator Nation.
Dave Clark created Gator Glory, a coleus plant with a gold band around orange leaves. He said the band symbolizes the color used for agricultural academic regalia.
Clark teaches Plants, Gardening and You, a UF introductory course that includes lectures on coleus breeding. The idea for the orange plant originated in that course — one of Clark’s students suggested creating an orange coleus plant.
“It took us about four years,” he said.
Clark said Gator Glory symbolizes the teaching and research at UF and the Institute for Plant Innovation of the Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences.
“It’s a terrific thing when research talent and school spirit come together,” said UF spokesman Steve Orlando.
Clark said the university doesn’t have an official plant. Gator Glory grows well in Florida’s warm weather, he said, but it is not available to purchase.
UF agricultural operations management senior Rebecca Lee, 23, said it would be “really neat if the Gator Glory became UF’s official plant.”
“It is another way to represent the college in a beautiful manner,” she said.
Clark said his goal was to have Gator Glory displayed on the UF commencement stage. Gator Glory was displayed at the 2013 spring commencement ceremony, and there are plans to display the orange plant at the summer and fall ceremonies as well, he said.
“I’ve seen Gator Glory in front of the stage at commencement ceremonies, and it’s a nice accent,” Orlando said. “I’m sure there are lots of Gators out there who will be waiting to snap them up.”
Gator Glory, a coleus plant created by UF environmental horticulture professor Dave Clark, captures school spirit.
