Fact Sheet

EXHIBIT: LOWLAND TROPICS

Exiting the Entry Way and walking into the Central Dome area, visitors will experience the steamy and lush jungles of the LOWLAND TROPICS. High overhead, a light rain falls on the canopy of palms and the century-old giant philodendron. The stump of an enormous kapok tree lies on the ground while falling water cascades through the foliage around it. Large and colorful fruits hang heavily from branches, and sweet fragrances mingle in the air.

Here in the LOWLAND TROPICS, the Conservatory will feature a wide variety of economic plants in order to educate the public about the tropical products they eat and use in the home every day. Visitors will marvel at chocolate, coffee and other favorites "in the wild."

The following are some of the plants from the Conservatory's economic plant collection with the part of the plant consumed or used noted:

• cinnamon (bark)
• coffee (seeds roasted for the common beverage)
• banana (fruit)
• miracle fruit (fruit changes sour taste receptors in your mouth to sweet)
• vanilla (fruit of a vining orchid)
• taro (underground root)
• chocolate (delicacy derived from the seeds of this plant)
• timber bamboo (woody stems are used as timber)
• balsa (light-weight wood used in model plane construction)

Other plants in this gallery will include the Conservatory's centenarians, the oldest and most valuable plants in the entire collection. They include:

• Dioon spinulosum and Zamia lindenii - Two varieties of Cycads
  Cycads are primitive gymnosperms that first appear in the geological record about 170 to 180 million years ago. They were present before the rise of dinosaurs and persist today in limited areas of the world.
  
  
• Philodendron speciosum - Imperial Philodendron
  A native of southeastern Brazil, this is the largest specimen in cultivation and is over 100 years old. It appears for the first time in printed inventories accompanying the Park Commissioners' Report in 1901-1902.
  
  
• Phoenix roebelinii - Pygmy Date Palm
  This plant came to the Conservatory after the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition. It is native to Laos and is widely cultivated as an ornamental. The trunk takes on a characteristic curving nature with age.
  

ADDITIONAL EXHIBIT FEATURE:
Also in the LOWLAND TROPICS will be two cases, both focused on plant conservation. The first case will include artifacts and text describing the state of plant collecting in the tropics in the late 1870's. The other case will contrast Victorian plant-collecting experiences with the present. Botanists today catalogue the flora of the tropics using modern technology such as helicopters and global positioning systems. This exhibit will also contrast the state of the tropical ecosystems themselves. In the 120 years since the Conservatory opened, human beings have perpetuated an incomprehensible conservation crisis in the tropics. This exhibit will suggest ways that visitors can help reverse the trend toward plant extinction.