Tropical Food Plants Greenhouse

An entire greenhouse devoted to tropical food plants? Why all the attention? It’s easy to figure out if you just take a look in your refrigerator and cupboards and count all the tropical fruit, vegetables and spices. Coffee, bananas, avocados, cashews, ginger, vanilla, pineapples – the list goes on and on, because these foods have become so much a part of our everyday diet.

Here’s to diversity!

Tropical food plants come in an incredible variety of shapes and colours. Nearly 80 species are on display in the Tropical Food Plants Greenhouse at the Jardin botanique, ranging from ground-hugging plants to others that reach for the sky. Visitors will also discover that it’s not only the fruit of these plants that we eat (like pineapples, grapefruit and avocados), but in some cases the rhizomes (ginger, arrowroot), stems (sugar cane), bark (cinnamon), leaves (tea, curry ingredients) and even the seeds (rice, coffee, carob)! All kinds of plant parts can be used to feed humankind.

Amidst all these tropical food plants, we had to make room for spices. Eight of them (to be specific) – cardamom, star anise, vanilla, allspice, black pepper, cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg and mace – are displayed in transparent cylinders along the pathway through the greenhouse. You won’t find any recipes here, for the focus is on an interesting aspect or surprising fact related to the plant that yields each spice.

The Tropical Food Plants Greenhouse encourages visitors to think about the importance of tropical food plants within the plant world and within our societies. Their fabulous diversity and special features are a delight for the senses, sparking curiosity and fascination. When you next visit a supermarket, we bet you’ll see the produce section in a whole new light!