Our Tropical Room contains plants that thrive in the warmth and light of the ecosystems that straddle the earth’s equator – from the Tropic of Capricorn (latitude 23.4 degrees south) to the Tropic of Cancer (latitude 23.4 degrees north). These are the most biodiverse zones on land on our planet, not only for plants but also for animals.
Often called the “lungs” of the earth, tropical rainforests are carbon sinks, absorbing carbon dioxide and giving back oxygen. The Amazon alone, South America’s over two million square mile rainforest, the world’s largest, is estimated to produce over 20% of the world’s life-giving oxygen. Its over 100 inches of rainfall annually supports nearly half a million species of plants, including 16,000 species of trees, and more are continually discovered and described.
Banana Plant
(Musa Acuminata)
Banana plants are among the largest herbaceous plants, some reaching 30 to 60 feet in height. Although they grow as high as trees, banana plants are not woody, and their apparent trunk is made up of the tightly wrapped bases of the huge leaf stalks. There are more than eighty species of bananas and plantains in the genus Musa, but the grocery store banana we see always and everywhere is the Cavendish. It came to prominence in the 1950s when an earlier variety was wiped out by a fungus, and now the Cavendish itself is under similar threat as botanists worldwide race to develop a replacement.
Cacao Tree
(Theobroma cacao)
The cacao tree (Theobroma cacao, Greek for “food of the gods”), though native to the tropics of the Americas, is now cultivated on more than 25 million acres worldwide. The largest producers include the Ivory Coast, Ghana, Indonesia, and Ecuador. It is a small evergreen whose seeds are used to make chocolate. Clusters of flowers are produced directly on the trunk and older branches. These become the cocoa pods, oval, ridged, ripening to yellow, and containing anywhere from 20 to 60 cocoa beans. The bitter seeds are dried and processed to make cocoa solids, cocoa butter, and chocolate (with the addition of sugar).
Staghorn Fern
(Platycerium bifurcatum)
&
Spanish Moss
(Tillandsia usneoides)
The Staghorn Fern and the Spanish Moss are both epiphytes, plants that can thrive without soil. They get water and nutrients from rain and debris and can grow in the topmost story of the rainforest trees to get light. Although they may attach themselves to other plants for physical support, they are not parasites, taking nothing from their host. Staghorn Ferns are native to Java, New Guinea, and Australia; while Spanish Moss is not from Spain but from the southern United States, Central and South America, and the Caribbean Islands.
Phone: (708) 725-2460
615 Garfield
PO Box 1096
Oak Park, IL 60304
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The Friends of the Oak Park Conservatory is a nonprofit, 501(c)(3) organization whose mission is to promote community interest in the Oak Park Conservatory,
offer educational and recreational opportunities and support projects that benefit the Oak Park Conservatory.
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