A group of us from work are down in Ft. Lauderdale for the Tropical Plant Industry Exhibition. This afternoon we were able to head down to the Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden in Coral Gables, so I'm posting a few of the MANY photos that we took.
The palm-like plant is indeed a palm, Iguanura wallichiana var. major, which is native to Malaysia. I was mesmerized by the way the light was filtering through the crinkly leaves.
The yellow and green pods are from one of the most amazing plants on this planet, at least as far as chocolate lovers are concerned. The roasted beans from the pods of Theobroma cacao are the source of chocolate. Need I say more?
I absolutely loved the bromeliad--Aechmea blanchetiana. I'd never seen a bromeliad with such amazing colored foliage. And the way the flowers contrasted with the foliage? Amazing. I'll have to do some research when I get back and see if this variety would be cold-hardy enough for Gainesville.
And finally, I posted a shot of some of the cool Chihuly glass that is scattered about the gardens. This particular installation was our favorite, in part for its simplicity and for the way the linear red forms stretched upward against a solid green backdrop. Very pretty.
That's all for now since we have a breakfast meeting at 7:30 a.m. I'll be sure to post more shots at a later date.
Fairchild Tropical Botanic Gardens
Thursday, January 17, 2008
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
2 comments:
Oh, I love Chihuly glass! Now I'm actually jealous.
Can we grow chocolate plants in Gainesville? :)
Here in North Florida, you'd probably have to grow it in a container so that you can bring it inside when freezes were in the forecast. In South Florida, the plants might do alright in the ground.
Post a Comment