This weekend I went to Hawaii, the Jungle, and the Desert without leaving The Hill

My roommate Julie and I visited the U.S. Botanic Gardens on Saturday. It is only a short trek from our house, located near the Capitol Building on the SW side. Above is a photograph of the greenhouse with the Capitol Building in the background, taken from the outdoor gardens on the west side.

As I alluded to in my title, there are multiple rooms in the conservatories with each housing plants from either different parts of the world or grouped by type of plant. They have rooms specific to Hawaii, the Jungle, the Desert, medicinal plants, orchids, and an exhibit on plants and culture. Although I have not seen to many of the tourist attractions yet (side note: after class on Wednesday I am making an official list of what I still need to see), this has been my favorite by far. I will have to go back and next time I will be sure to bring my good camera and extra batteries!

The main attraction is the jungle room and it definitely deserves more than one walk through. This room has a mezzanine level from which you can take a leisurely canopy walk.

The jungle room is a typical greenhouse in that it needs fans to push down warm air to provide air movement and reduce temperature differences. The U.S. Botanic Gardens has adopted new high-efficiency fans, (pictured below) which use minimal energy, in comparison to the traditional paddle fans, to move air at a high velocity.
The conservatory also has an entire room devoted to my favorite flower, the orchid. The docent told us that there are over 20,000 accepted species of the orchid, so it is a little silly to say that it is my favorite because there are so many different types.Some other fun facts he gave us were that different type of orchids grow in all climates, including the arctic, and some grow entirely underground. The U.S. Botanic Gardens keeps specimens of over 5,000 species, of which it displays hundreds at any given time and rotates the orchids exhibit often.

A few other fun things to check out are the plants and culture exhibit, which includes some info on chocolate (cocoa beans pictured left) and the Happy Tree (pictured right) in the medicinal plants room. A tip for next time -- dress in layers, it is warmer and more humid than you think! And bring your camera!

-Andrea