Botanical Research Institute of Texas
1700 University Dr.
Fort Worth
817/332-4441
brit.org
Hours: 10am–5pm Monday–Friday; 10am–2pm Saturday
Admission: Free for admission, self-guided and public tours; private tours for groups are $7.50 per person
Parking: Free
We can all appreciate freshly mowed lawns and tidy hedges, but nothing beats the rustic beauty of the sun-kissed prairie grasses that grow wild in Fort Worth’s neck of the state. The Botanical Research Institute of Texas, which opened in 2011 right next door to the Fort Worth Botanic Garden, is one organization that especially appreciates natural Texas vegetation. By blending its research and education efforts, BRIT offers special family programming so your kids can connect with nature through reading, touching and even playing dress-up.
Bella’s Story Time
Plant the seeds of curiosity both literal and literary during this drop-in program for preschoolers, held on the first Saturday and the first Tuesday of each month at 10:30am. The program’s mascot is a pink begonia puppet named Bella (Carlos the Cactus is coming soon), who reads to the kids from a different book each month. With 4,000 books on botany and natural history in the Burk Children’s Library, they’ve got plenty titles to choose from.
Bella’s Story Time starts in the library – or outside if the weather is nice – and then moves into the educational classroom for hands-on creative play with natural materials, sand boxes and a great view of the prairie grass restoration area outside.
Kids Play Area
BRIT’s exhibit hall displays rotating collections of plant specimens, and while you step inside to see what a purple coneflower looks like up-close, the kids can keep busy in the nearby play area. They can dress up as a cowboy, sheriff or Native American, then admire themselves in the tree mirror and sit on the stumps to dig into selected children’s books. BRIT’s next exhibit Hidden Beautiful of Grasses opens June 7.
Plant Identification
When you and the kids are out in your own backyard, do you ever play the is-this-a-weed-or-a-flower game? The researchers at BRIT can help. Pull up that mystery plant or flower and the staff botanists will do their best to identify it for you, so you know what to call it and whether to encourage its growth or say goodbye with a trowel.
Make an appointment to meet with a botanist during open hours Monday–Friday, or head to BRIT on Science Saturdays from 10am–2pm, held on the first Saturday each month, for a tour through the herbarium’s Plant Preservation Studio where researchers archive dried plants by mounting them onto paper. Their oldest archived specimen dates back to the late 1700s.
Farmers Market
This year, BRIT has begun offering its own monthly Farmers Market with locally grown, seasonal produce for sale on the lawn. But you know better than to go shopping while you’re hungry. First choose lunch from a variety of food trucks parked out front, then listen to live music while you shop for fresh veggies, herbs and more.
Each market event will have different activities for children; in May, don’t miss the opportunity to feed the guest horses. (Expect the kids to request a few more carrots that may never make it to your fridge.)
Public Tours
With a library that holds more than 125,000 volumes and an herbarium of more than one million specimens, this nonprofit’s research facility is no small potato. Get a peek at what BRIT’s researchers are up to on a free public tour led by a trained ambassador. You’ll learn more about BRIT's history and environmental sustainability efforts as well as how the building earned its LEED Platinum certification (notice the solar panels, living roof and vine-covered walls). Tours are offered at 1:30pm on Thursdays and 10:30am on Saturdays.
On select Science Saturdays, join a botanist- or naturalist-led plant walk to see the trees, wildflower meadow and prairie grasses on BRIT’s property and to take a possible foray out to the Fort Worth Botanic Garden.
