Jungle Garden

Bromeliads are more often thought of as houseplants, but they are good landscape plants. The fruit and flower clusters of the fishtail palm (Caryota spp.) can grow ten feet long. They bloom only once, then die. Giant-leaved elephant ear plants grow near the waterfall. At the bottom of the garden is the Ombu tree (Phytolacca dioica), one of five plants received from the U.S. Department of Agriculture in 1914, grown from seed received from the Buenos Aires Botanical Garden in 1912. An unofficial emblem of Argentina, the tree has an enormous swollen base that evolved to help it cope with grass fires, winds, and scarce rainfall. The rare bamboo Dendrocalamus asper from south Asia can grow from fifty to over one hundred feet tall. Of the many different kinds of bamboo, it is one of the tallest.

The luxuriant leaves of the strawberry snowball tree sometimes hide its lovely pink flowers. As these fall to the ground during its winter blooming season, they create a carpet of pink around the tree. Visitors may spot this native of Madagascar at the southeastern edge of the Jungle Garden.

The Jungle Garden Collection

The canopies of tall trees, mostly Ficus species such as Ficus thonningii (Thonning’s Fig), protect plants below that are sensitive to frost and sun.