Aroids and other genera in the Collection
Take the Tour Now?
Orchids
The
Exotic Rainforest
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Our
Exotic Rainforest has three walkways which take you on a walkl
around the pond. The main walk, which you see on the home page
of this site leads from our glass kitchen door to the back entrance
of the atrium. At the end of that walk a right turn takes you
to the South Walk. Each walk is not long since the entire
atrium is 24 feet by 24 feet. Iif you take your time there is
plenty to see along your way.
The majority of the Exotic Rainforest collection is made up of
members of the plant family Araceae. Araceae are commonly
known as aroids and include approximately 3300 species in 116
genera. Aroid genera include close to 1000 species of
Anthurium, another 1000 species of Philodendron as well
as Alocasia, Colocasia, Amorphophallus, Spathiphyllum,
Caladium and others.
On the right of the
south walk can be found the back of the waterfall which is not
visible in this view. The 2000 gallon pond is immediately to
the right of the walk behind a very large tree fern. If you
look closely at the photo on the right you can just see the park
bench on the opposite side of the pond.
Look above your head as
you walk you'll see many of our larger aroid species hanging in baskets
with long root systems hanging in the air. We grow them this way
since the majority don't live in the soil but instead grow in the rain
forest canopy on the branches of a tree. The peak of our "rain
forest" is almost 5 meters (16 feet 4 inches).
From the very beginning our goal has been to make the Exotic Rainforest
look and feel as close as possible to a real South American rain forest.
Want to see how we built our
epiphytic tree? Click the photo.
