Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden |
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Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden
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| Type | Private, open to the public for a fee |
| Location | Coral Gables, (Miami-Dade County), Florida, United States |
| Area | 83 acres (34 ha) |
| Created | 1938 |
| Status | Open year round |
Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden is a large 83-acre (34 ha) botanic garden located in Coral Gables, Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States. It's just south of Miami and is surrounded by Matheson Hammock Park. The garden is famous for its huge collections of rare tropical plants. These include palms, cycads, flowering trees, and climbing vines.
Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden first opened its doors to the public in 1938. Today, it's more than just a garden. It works as a museum, a science lab, a learning center, and a place for research to protect plants. Its main goal is to save different kinds of plants from disappearing. The garden has 45,000 members and over 1,200 volunteers who help out. Since 2012, it has also been the home of the American Orchid Society.
Contents
History of the Garden
The garden was started in 1936 by a man named Robert H. Montgomery. He was an accountant and businessman who loved collecting plants. He named the garden after his good friend, David Fairchild, who was a famous plant explorer.
David Fairchild's Plant Discoveries
David Fairchild traveled all over the world. He brought more than 20,000 new plants to the United States. Some of these plants include mangos, alfalfa, nectarines, dates, horseradish, different kinds of bamboos, and flowering cherries. David Fairchild moved to Miami in 1935. Many plants still growing in the garden today were collected and planted by him. This includes a giant African baobab tree.
Designing the Garden
Robert Montgomery wanted to create a special botanical garden in Miami. He bought the land and later gave a large part of it to Miami-Dade County. The garden was designed by a landscape architect named William Lyman Phillips. He was a leading designer in South Florida during the 1930s. Phillips had three main ideas when he designed Fairchild: variety, consistency, and contrast.
Many of the garden's first buildings and features were built in its first 15 years. These included the Montgomery Palmetum, the Bailey Palm Glade, and 14 lakes. Over the years, more buildings were added. In 2012, a new group of buildings called the Science Village complex opened.
Plant Collections
Fairchild Gardens has many amazing plant collections. These include rare palms, cycads, orchids, and bromeliads. They also have different types of ginger plants.
World's Largest Bamboo Collection
Fairchild has the biggest collection of tropical bamboo in the world! It has 125 different kinds of bamboo species. The Michaux Bahamas Collection features native woody plants and flowers from trips to the Bahamian islands. The Montgomery Palmetum has one of the best-documented palm collections. These palms come from all over the world.
Exotic Fruits and Flowering Trees
You can find some of the world's most unusual tropical fruits at Fairchild. These include the Durian, which comes from places like the Amazon, Borneo, and Thailand. The garden's Tropical Flowering Trees collection has over 740 types of flowering trees from around the globe. The most famous one is the cannonball tree. It was planted in 1938 and is known for its strong smell. It's one of the very few cannonball trees in the United States.
The Rainforest Experience
Fairchild Gardens is home to the only rainforest in the continental United States. This two-acre rainforest has waterfalls and small streams. It's filled with plants collected from the Amazon. A special misting system helps make it feel like a real rainforest.
Research and Conservation Efforts
Scientists at Fairchild work hard to protect tropical plants. They try to stop plant species and their natural homes from disappearing. This work helps save plants in places like South Florida, the Caribbean, and tropical Africa. They focus on plant groups like palms, cycads, tropical fruits, and tropical trees.
Saving Orchids and Helping NASA
Fairchild works with local colleges to train students in plant science. In 2014, Fairchild Gardens and the City of Coral Gables started the Million Orchid project. This project aims to bring back native orchids to Miami-Dade County. Many native orchids were lost when Miami was developed a long time ago. Fairchild has brought back three native orchid species: the Florida butterfly orchid, the cowhorn orchid, and the cockleshell orchid. They also reintroduced the tiger orchid, which is the largest orchid species in the world.
In 2015, Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden teamed up with NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. They are part of the Growing Beyond Earth Challenge (GBC). This project helps scientists test edible plants that could be used for future space missions. They use special equipment that copies the conditions on the International Space Station. A small botany lab also tests how plants grow with LED lighting and special watering systems.
Educational Programs
Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden offers many educational programs for people of all ages. You can learn about gardening, art, photography, and even cooking.
Programs for Students
There are more than five educational programs for students from kindergarten to 12th grade. Students learn about botany (the study of plants), landscape design, and nature through fun activities and garden tours. These programs include the Explorer Program, Discovery Program, Adventure Program, Planet Mobile Program, and Homeschool Programs.
One special program is The Fairchild Challenge. About 20,000 students from over 120 schools in Miami-Dade County take part. They plant, care for, and learn in their school gardens. This program also offers advice for school gardens and workshops for teachers. It even provides grants to help schools create gardens.
Wings of the Tropics
"Wings of the Tropics" is a special butterfly house at Fairchild. It's located inside the 25,000 square foot (2,300 m2) Clinton Family Conservatory. Here, you can see exotic butterflies flying freely. Most of these butterflies come from Central America, South America, and Southeast Asia. Butterflies are released twice a day, once in the morning and once in the afternoon. You might see longwings, Morpho butterflies, and owl butterflies.
The butterfly house has special feeding stations with overripe fruits like banana and mango. Visitors can walk along a concrete path and watch the butterflies. Sometimes, butterflies might even land on your shoulders or head! There are triple sets of doors to make sure these butterflies don't escape into the local area. Close to this conservatory, there's also an outdoor butterfly garden. Here, you can see many native butterflies like monarchs, zebra longwings, and julias.
Art in the Garden
Since 2003, Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden has hosted art exhibits. Famous artists like Dale Chihuly and Fernando Botero have shown their work here. New artists usually start their exhibits each December. The garden also hosts many fun weekend festivals throughout the year. These include the International Chocolate Festival, the International Mango Festival, and the Butterfly Festival. Other events include concerts and meetings for plant societies. You can even buy plants during The Ramble event, which usually happens in the fall.
Images for kids
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The world's largest unbranched flower, the Amorphophallus titanum, takes years to bloom. This one, nicknamed Mr. Stinky because of its smell, is part of the collection at Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden. Photo taken in 2001.
See also
In Spanish: Fairchild Tropical Botanical Garden para niños
