Florida Trip Day 11 (Fort Lauderdale)
	Florida Trip Days 5-9 (Fort Lauderdale)
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As it turned out, Steve and Mario, our good friends, were also in Florida for part of the time we were here. They come down to Miami, where both their families live, to visit them a couple of times a year, and one of those times is usually in the Fall. I believe they had flown down two days after we left, and now they have both had a good visit with their families, and are going to spend a couple of days with us before flying back to Dallas from Fort Lauderdale.

We've coordinated our plans for today, and Fred and I are going to drive first to Steve's parent's house, pick him up, then drive to Mario's folk's place and collect him, and then, probably, go to the Fairchild Gardens Tropical Park.

Collecting Steve and Mario

Getting to Steve's Parent's House

As it turned out, Steve's parents did not live too far from me- in the northwestern portion of the Miami area (actually, more like Hollywood). We just went down US-1 to I-595 west, took that to I-75 south, and got off at Sheridan Road.

Once we were heading west on Sheridan Road, we turned into their gated development, wound through a few streets as shown on the aerial view, and then ended up at their house on NW 162nd Avenue.

Steve's parents live in a nice two-story house right on the shore of an artificial lake, and we had a nice visit with them before we picked Steve up and headed over to Mario's parent's house.

Getting to Mario's Parent's House

Steve and Mario went to the same high school growing up, so you would assume that they would live near each other. They did, growing up, but when Steve's parents moved further out, they didn't move far. All we had to do was continue south on I-75 about three miles and get off on Miami Gardens Drive and head east.

Just before getting to NW 47th Avenue, we turned north on NW 48th Place and then right on NW 184th Terrace. Mario's parents and his sister have houses side by side about eight doors down the street.

We spent a half-hour or so at Mario's, meeting his parents and seeing his sister again. His parents speak little English, so Mario had to be the translator. They have a very nice little family compound. His parents actually live in a small house behind a larger one where his brother lives, so the whole extended family is close together.

When we were done visiting, we picked up Mario and his stuff and headed off to Fairchild Tropical Gardens.

Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden

Today, we have planned a visit to the Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden, which is somewhat south of downtown Miami. Fred and I have been to Parrot Jungle, which is in the same general area, but did not know about Fairchild until Steve suggested it. Since we are already down here in Miami, we thought it would be a good stop to make.

The History of Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden

David Fairchild (1869-1954) was one of the greatest plant explorers of all time. At the age of 22, he created the Section of Foreign Seed and Plant Introduction of the United States Department of Agriculture, and for the next 37 years, he traveled the world in search of plants of potential use to the American people. His far-reaching travels brought into cultivation in the U.S. many important plants, including mangos, alfalfa, nectarines, dates, horseradish, bamboos and flowering cherries.

Dr. Fairchild retired to Miami in 1935, sharing his vast knowledge and experience in tropical plants with Col. Robert H. Montgomery, who founded the botanical garden and named it to honor his friend. Many plants still growing in the Garden were collected and planted by Dr. Fairchild, including a giant African baobab tree not far from the entrance. Before WWII, Dr. Fairchild conducted collecting expeditions to the Far East for FTBG.

Opened to the public in 1938, Fairchild was established on an 83-acre site south of Miami purchased by Col. Montgomery and later deeded in large part to Miami-Dade County. Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden was designed by renowned landscape architect William Lyman Phillips, member of the Frederick Law Olmsted partnership, and the leading landscape designer in South Florida during the 1930s.

The first 15 years saw the construction of its primary buildings and landscape features, including the Montgomery Palmetum, Bailey Palm Glade, Allee and Overlook, Vine Pergola, Amphitheatre, Gate House, Montgomery Library and Museum, 11 lakes, stone terracing walls, irrigation systems, Moos Sunken Garden, and Nell Montgomery Garden House auditorium. Later buildings included the Davis House (1953), Hawkes Laboratory (1960), Robbins Plant Science Building (1967), Rare Plant House (1968), Corbin Education Building (1972), and various additions over the years. A comprehensive master plan developed in 1993 provides a framework for continued growth and development.

Assembling and maintaining an outstanding botanical collection has been a fundamental part of the institution's existence since 1938; the palms and cycads are still the most significant Fairchild collections. Since Hurricane Andrew in 1992, Fairchild plant collecting efforts have intensified dramatically, as scientists seek not only to restore the FTBG collections, but also to identify and save endangered plants throughout the tropics. Since 1938, FTBG has distributed plants and seeds both to fellow scientists and to members of the local community. Fairchild palms, cycads, ornamentals and fruit trees have been a source of new varieties for commercial growers and home gardeners alike.

Getting to the Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden

I had already mapped out the way to the Garden in my head this morning. From Mario's parents' house, we just took NW 47th Avenue south to the Palmetto Expressway, and then followed that west and then south across the western part of metropolitan Miami.

At SW 88th Street, we got off the expressway and headed east, almost to Biscayne Bay.

Along SW 88th Street/Kendall Drive, we passed many beautiful homes as we neared the shore of the bay. Just before reaching it, we turned south on the Old Cutter Highway and drove perhaps a mile to the entrance to the Gardens.

An Orientation to Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden

The Fairchild Garden has a number of different areas, a large visitor center complex, a restaurant and shops. At the north end of the gardens are the visitor center, one of the restaurants and some of the shops. On the south end are some greenhouses and a garden cafe. In between are the palms, cycads and the desert garden. There are also meeting and research buildings.

At the east end of the garden, towards Biscayne Bay, there are large areas devoted to particular ecosystems amid many small lakes and ponds. Here you can find a pine barren ecosystem, a lowlands ecosystem, palms and coconut palms and bamboo stands. There is also an area devoted to plants of the Caribbean. Two areas are under development, one which will be devoted to plants of Africa and the other to plants of Asia.

In our walks today, we'll be making a loop, generally, from the Visitor Center to the cafe on the south side of the garden, through the greenhouses in the southwest corner, and then back north along the west side of the gardens. Then, we'll return to the center of the garden and make a loop to the east and back, going towards Biscayne Bay along the garden's north side and returning along the south.

Walking from the Visitor Center to the Cafe

We began our walk at the visitor center, after purchasing our admissions. On the south side of the visitor center is the verandah and double staircase that leads to the restaurant upstairs. Just as we started out, I snapped a picture of Mario, Steve and Fred looking south from the visitor center across the eastern area of the gardens. These pictures were taken at the location marked "A" on the partial gardens map at left.

Immediately south of the visitor center, as we were walking down the path, we passed through a garden area with exhibits of various tropical plants, flowers and trees (marked "B" on the map at left).

     Interesting Trees

Amid the many beautiful flowers, which we'll look at in a minute, I found a number of interesting trees. On extremely unusual palm had fruit that looked like bananas or plantains, but didn't seem to be arranged as I usually think of bunches of bananas still on the tree to look. I probably read a label telling me what the tree was, but wasn't able to write it down.

Another very interesting specimen was a tree with some of the most unusual bark that I've ever seen. The bark was multi-colored, and almost looked like a modern painting. How the sheathing on the tree got those colors I have no idea, but reminded me of the Padrone trees we'd seen in Oregon.

But probably the most unusual of the trees I saw here was one that had developed what I can only assume is some sort of defense mechanism. It is called the "Silk Floss Tree." The exterior of the trunk of the tree was covered in randomly‑sized thorns. The thorns were also multi-colored and all of different sizes, and, apparently, randomly arranged. It looked for all the world as if someone had come along and simply stuck them on; there was no pattern I could discern. I can only assume that the thorny structures evolved to keep animals from climbing the tree and eating the fruit, before the tree had a chance to reproduce. This tree was pretty amazing; I have never seen anything like it.

     Plants and Flowers

In this area were many beautiful plants and flowers, many of them reminiscent of those we saw at the Hawaii Tropical Botanical Garden on the island of Hawaii when we were there three years ago. I can only presume that the climates are similar. In any event, Fred took a number of very pretty pictures of some of the more interesting plants and flowers. You can view as many of these pictures as you wish by clicking on the thumbnail images below:

     Anoles and Iguanas

At Fairchild Gardens, there are certainly a lot of reptiles, and we saw a good many of them going about their day as they scurried under bushes, climbed up trees and jumped into the lakes. But we found out that most of these reptiles are not native to Florida and pose a threat to the area's unique and rich biodiversity.

One native reptile, the green anole is fast becoming outnumbered by invasive anoles from the Caribbean and Central America. In fact, on any given day, it struggles to compete, as it gets pushed out of its habitat. Perhaps the most troublesome introduced reptile is the green iguana, which thrives without any natural predators. It freely consumes prized leaves, fruits and flowers, thereby threatening the scientific plant collections at Fairchild, home gardens in Florida and some of the state's rarest plant species.

We certainly did see a lot of lizards and iguanas, and actually got close enough to take a few pictures of some of them; most of these pictures were taken along the shore of Pandanus Lake, at about the spot marked "C" on the map above. If you will click on the thumbnail images below, you can see some of the reptiles we saw today in the gardens:

We continued walking south along the path towards the cafe. We passed a raised planted area that the guide map referred to as the Allee and Overlook and then passed the Learning Garden. Just before we reached the cafe, we passed Clarke Lake and you can see some of the eastern part of the gardens in the background.

The Cafe and Greenhouses

We reached the Cafe and stopped to have a sandwich for lunch. Then, we toured the two greenhouses nearby and, after that, walked back up through the Gardens towards the Visitor Center.

     Windows to the Tropics Conservatory

Fairchild's Tropics Conservatory houses tropical botanical collections that would suffer even in Miami's environment, where temperatures often dip into the 40s during winter months; truly tropical plants require 55 degreees at a minimum. In the conservatory, plants can be given a neutral to acidic pH, instead of the outside topsoil's high pH.

In the epiphyte room there is a rainforest canopy. Here, there are lots of plants that thrive above ground level by attaching themselves to other plants or other objects for support. Epiphytes are not parasitic and cause no direct harm to the plant they are attached to. Here there are epiphytic ferns, bromeliads, and orchids that bloom throughout the year.

There is also a horticultural display room, and other greenhouses supply the potted plants that rotate through this display. Here are some of Fairchild's most prized aroids, bromeliads and orchids, along with unusual new species and horticultural selections. One highlight is the 40-foot-long Tillandsia screen that displays plants suspended in mid-air. The conservatory also has one of the world's largest ferns, Angiopteris evecta, that can produce fronds up to 40 feet long and a rare Pelagodoxa henryana (only ten or so individual plants left in the wild). The Cyrtostachys renda ( red sealing wax palm) thrives in hot humid conditions, and many other plants produce intoxicating fragrances Throughout the conservatory there wre flowering trees, palms and cycads, aroids, and ferns representing the plant diversity of the tropical world.

I should also point out that Fairchild Gardens was either hosting an exhibit of blown glass by Chihuly. There were some of his large glass sculptures in the Conservatory and the other greenhouses and in a pond by the educational buildings. There were also some small Chihuly glass pieces sprinkled through some of the greenhouses as well. I made a movie of the sculpture that is positioned at the entrance to the Tropics Conservatory, and you can watch that movie with the player at right.

There were many interesting and beautiful plants and trees inside the Tropics Conservatory, and we took a wide range of pictures. I have selected the best of these pictures to include here. If you will click on each of the thumbnail images below, you can see the best of the pictures we took:

I also made a movie partway through our tour of the conservatory, showing many of the plants and trees that it shelters.

     Whitman Tropical Fruit Pavilion

The Whitman Tropical Fruit Pavilion provides visitors with a trip to the tropics where they will be able to view, feel and even possibly taste some of the most exotic tropical fruit species found in places like Borneo, the Amazon, Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia. The pavilion was dedicated on November 8, 2003, and funded by a five million dollar donation from the Whitman family. It features specially chosen and grafted trees that will allow them to fruit earlier, with superior quality, making them horticulturally significant from their wild counterparts. The fruit trees located in the pavilion are indigenous to the acidic soils of the jungles and in order to protect these trees from the alkaline rocky soil of Florida, engineers were required to excavate the area below the pavilion. The acidic soil is maintained by using mulch and water from an acidic cistern. The pavilion must provide both a warm humid environment above and acidic soil below, protecting the rare specimens from root to canopy.

     The Palmetum

From the Whitman greenhouse, we took the walkway along the west side of the Gardens through an area called the Palmetum. Here, there were palms, of every size and description, plus a lot of other interesting plants and trees. At the Garden House, we found an artificial pool that again had some glass sculptures by Gilhuly, and called the guys in so I could get a picture of our group and the Gilhuly glass.

Along this part of the walk, we again found a number of interesting plants, and we recorded a number of them in pictures. Click on the thumbnail images below to see these pictures:

In addition to the various flowers and plants, there were also a number of interesting trees; supposedly, all of them were palms of one kind or another. I've put thumbnail images below that you can click on to see some of these interesting trees:

Fred brought me over to where he was looking at one particular tree and suggested I make a movie of it to really give you an idea of what it was like. You can watch that movie with the player at left.

     The Sunken Garden

Quite near the Garden House there was a little area that had a bench and a little path. At first, we thought that's all there was, but the path continued down through a thicket of palms and ended up at a little hidden pool. Once down in this little area, the rest of the Gardens were totally invisible, and you were in your own little world.

I made a movie here at the hidden pool in the sunken garden.

The Arid Garden and Victoria Pool

From the Garden House, we continued along the west side of the Gardens, through the Arid Garden (cacti) and past the Victoria Pool towards the Visitor Center.

     The Arid Garden

As the path wound north from the Garden House, we found the Arid Garden on both side of the walkway. The Arid Garden turned out to be a display of cacti- all different kinds and more than I remember seeing in one place for quite some time. Both Fred and I took quite a few pictures here. If you will click on the thumbnail images below, you can see the best of them:

     The Victoria Amazonica Pool

Up towards the top of the Arid Garden, and a bit off the path, we came by the Victoria Pool. It was a lovely artificial pool fed by a waterfall, and with some extremely interesting lily pads and flowers. Actually, there were a couple of different kinds of lily pads- the ones you just saw with the upturned edges, and others, like these, that were more "traditional" and flat. While we were here at the pool, I took a movie of it, and you can watch that movie using the player at left.

     Visitor Center Display Gardens

Leaving the pool, we walked the remainder of the way along the garden path until we got near the Visitor Center again. Just south of the center, the Arid Garden ended, and the area turned to lawn, and we encountered graceful trees, including another of the trees we saw when we first started out through gardens, the one with the beautiful multicolored bark, and this time, Fred also took a picture of its canopy.

Finally, we reached the Visitor Center again, and had a chance to go through some garden beds that we hadn't seen when we first started out. There were lots of interesting plants here, and if you will click on the thumbnail images below you can see the full-size pictures of some of them:

The Other Areas of Fairchild Gardens

There is quite a lot more land area to Fairchild Gardens than the area we traversed so far. We thought that as long as we were here, we would walk through these other areas. Most of them are areas for future development; what is out here are mostly trees. But it was a nice day and a nice walk.

We went south again on the park walk and around the bottom of Hammock Lake and then up across the top of an area called "The Lowlands," just on the other side of Pandanus Lake and the Visitor Center. We came around the lowlands, and then crossed a main park road heading east by Fan Palm Lake. Here, Fred found some tropical birds almost hidden away among the mangrove roots at the edge of the lake.

Walking further on, we detoured through the Pine Rockland, and we could get a view across Vee Lake towards an area marked as "Africa (future)" on the park brochure map (and the map duplicated at left). About here, Fred also noticed a tropical wading bird, and thought a picture was worthwhile.

We continued around the end of Center Lake, and passed through areas of bamboo, palms and coconut palms. The whole area was very restful, and there was almost no one in sight all throughout this part of our walk. We didn't take many pictures here, but I have included three that turned out well, and you can see them if you click on the thumbnail images below:

Returning to Fort Lauderdale - Evening

We'd done about all we wanted to at Fairchild, so we piled into the car and headed up to the condo in Fort Lauderdale for the evening.

We left the Gardens and headed up Old Cutter Road to Le Jeune Road, and then took that north until it intersected with US-1. We took that north where it merged into the southern beginning of I-95, and we took that north.

I-95 took us all the way north (about 40 miles) to the exit for Broward Blvd., and from there it was the familiar route back to the condo.

When everyone got settled, we made some drinks and went down to the Riverview Gardens dock where we sat, drank and talked and watched the sunset over the New River.

Then we walked down to the Floridian for dinner.

Use the links below to take a look at another album page for our Florida trip.

	Florida Trip Day 11 (Fort Lauderdale)
	Florida Trip Days 5-9 (Fort Lauderdale)
	Return to the Florida Trip Master Index