The American Orchid Society Visitors Center and Botanical Garden is a 3.5 acres (1.4 ha) botanical garden

Botanical garden

A botanical garden The terms botanic and botanical, and garden or gardens are used more-or-less interchangeably, although the word botanic is generally reserved for the earlier, more traditional gardens. is a well-tended area displaying a wide range of plants labelled with their botanical names...

 specializing in orchids and home to the American Orchid Society

American Orchid Society

The American Orchid Society is a horticultural society devoted to the promotion, cultivation, and study of orchids . The organization was founded in 1921 and now has a worldwide membership....

. The garden is located in Morikami Park

Morikami Park

Morikami Park is named after George Morikami, who donated the land for the park to Palm Beach County. It is the site of the Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens, the American Orchid Society Visitor Center and Botanical Garden, and the Biwa Pavilion, with group shelters and picnic tables...

 at 16700 AOS Lane, Delray Beach, Florida

Delray Beach, Florida

Delray Beach is a city in Palm Beach County, Florida, USA. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 60,020. As of 2004, the population estimated by the U.S...

, USA

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

, and is open to visitors during business hours.

The Garden contains two 4,000 square foot (370 m²) greenhouses, one for display and the other the society's production greenhouse. The public display house contains ever-changing orchid displays with a 14 foot (4 m) cascading waterfall.

The grounds showcase thousands of orchids, including two-dozen varieties of Cattleya

Cattleya

Cattleya is a genus of 113 species of orchids from Costa Rica to tropical South America. The genus was named in 1824 by John Lindley after Sir William Cattley who received and successfully cultivated specimens of Cattleya labiata that were used as packing material in a shipment of other orchids...

 quadricolor and beds of Dendrobium

Dendrobium

Dendrobium is a huge genus of orchids. It was established by Olof Swartz in 1799 and today contains about 1,200 species. The genus occurs in diverse habitats throughout much of south, east and southeast Asia, including the Philippines, Borneo, Australia, New Guinea, Solomon Islands and New Zealand...

and Spathoglottis

Spathoglottis

Spathoglottis is a genus of orchids . This genus is allied to genera Acanthephippium, Bletia, Calanthe, and Phaius. This genus is abbreviated Spa in trade journals. The genus Paxtonia Lindl...

orchids, plus a cypress swamp, tropical flowering trees, palms and vines. The collections include: amorphophallus

Amorphophallus

Amorphophallus is a large genus of some 170 tropical and subtropical tuberous herbaceous plants from the Arum family...

, balsa

Balsa

Ochroma pyramidale, commonly known as the balsa tree , is a species of flowering plant in the mallow family, Malvaceae. It is a large, fast-growing tree that can grow up to tall. It is the source of balsa wood, a very lightweight material with many uses...

, bamboo

Bamboo

Bamboo is a group of perennial evergreens in the true grass family Poaceae, subfamily Bambusoideae, tribe Bambuseae. Giant bamboos are the largest members of the grass family....

, baobab

Baobab

Adansonia is a genus of eight species of tree, six native to Madagascar, one native to mainland Africa and the Arabian Peninsula and one to Australia. The mainland African species also occurs on Madagascar, but it is not a native of that island....

, bromeliads, cycad

Cycad

Cycads are seed plants typically characterized by a stout and woody trunk with a crown of large, hard and stiff, evergreen leaves. They usually have pinnate leaves. The individual plants are either all male or all female . Cycads vary in size from having a trunk that is only a few centimeters...

s, Elephant apple

Elephant apple

Elephant apple may refer to either of two species of plant:* Dillenia indica* Limonia acidissima...

, Everglades palms

Arecaceae

Arecaceae or Palmae , are a family of flowering plants, the only family in the monocot order Arecales. There are roughly 202 currently known genera with around 2600 species, most of which are restricted to tropical, subtropical, and warm temperate climates...

, heliconia

Heliconia

Heliconia, derived from the Greek word helikonios, is a genus of about 100 to 200 species of flowering plants native to the tropical Americas and the Pacific Ocean islands west to Indonesia. Many species of Heliconia are found in rainforests or tropical wet forests of these regions...

s, leather fern

Fern

A fern is any one of a group of about 12,000 species of plants belonging to the botanical group known as Pteridophyta. Unlike mosses, they have xylem and phloem . They have stems, leaves, and roots like other vascular plants...

s, Lignum vitae

Lignum vitae

Lignum vitae is a trade wood, also called guayacan or guaiacum, and in parts of Europe known as pockenholz, from trees of the genus Guaiacum. This wood was once very important for applications requiring a material with its extraordinary combination of strength, toughness and density...

, Paradise trees, platycerium

Platycerium

Platycerium is a genus of about 18 fern species in the polypod family, Polypodiaceae. Ferns in this genus are widely known as staghorn or elkhorn ferns due to their uniquely-shaped fronds...

, Pond Apple, Silk Floss trees, a Triangle fig

Ficus

Ficus is a genus of about 850 species of woody trees, shrubs, vines, epiphytes, and hemiepiphyte in the family Moraceae. Collectively known as fig trees or figs, they are native throughout the tropics with a few species extending into the semi-warm temperate zone. The Common Fig Ficus is a genus of...

 tree, Vireyas

Rhododendron subgenus Vireya

Rhododendron subg. Vireya is a tropical subgenus of Rhododendron with 310 known species. Vireyas are native to southeastern Asia and range from Thailand to Australia....

, and water lilies

Nymphaeaceae

Nymphaeaceae is a family of flowering plants. Members of this family are commonly called water lilies and live in freshwater areas in temperate and tropical climates around the world. The family contains eight genera. There are about 70 species of water lilies around the world. The genus...

.

External links

• AOS Visitors Center and Botanical Garden
• American Orchid Society (AOS)