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 Botanical Garden, 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 plants part can be used to feed humankind.
* Rhizome: the underground stem of a perennial plant that has adventitious roots and stems with aerial leaves.
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.
Biodiversity is evident not only in the number of species of different plants,
but also in the plants’ genes and in the natural habitats where they are found. The disappearance of a single link in the chain upsets the entire balance. Just think of all the apple varieties that we have here and how much we enjoy their distinctive flavours. What can we do to protect this extraordinary diversity? How can we prevent the diseases and insect pests that could destroy entire plantations? The Tropical Food Plants Greenhouse looks at all these questions, using the case of banana plants as a starting point.
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!
Highlights
Step onto the elevated walkway in the Tropical Food Plants Greenhouse: it rises above the greenery and offers an
unexpected look at the plants surrounding you. Just like a climbing animal or bird, you can see them from above,
perched high in their foliage – some of these plants grow pretty tall!
An interactive terminal below the walkway offers a host of details about the plants in the greenhouse.
The touch screen makes it easy to find your way around all sorts of useful and sometimes surprising information.
Tropical food plants, much more than just food
Powerful economic engines
Food plants are central to the economies of a number of tropical countries that grow these plants. Harvesting and transforming all these foodstuffs creates hundreds of thousands of jobs and affects the lives of billions of people!
- Some plants, like rice and cassava, are staple foods for many people: growing them is essential to survival;
- Others, like coffee and cocoa, play a key economic role because they are prized export goods in great demand around the globe;
- Fruit like bananas and mangoes are produced in enormous quantities to meet rapidly growing demand worldwide;
- Special attention is also paid to plants like sugar cane and dates, whose production has a major environmental impact.
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Small-scale, industrial or sustainable agriculture?
Tropical food plants are grown in a wide variety of settings, from family farms to industrial plantations:
- Small-scale farming: This form of farming is still practised widely on all continents and is based on family or community farms;
- Industrial agriculture: This can produces tremendous volumes of food, but comes with a very high cost for the environment;
- Sustainable agriculture: Aimed at reducing the environmental impact of agricultural operations and respecting workers’ rights by charging fair prices for foodstuffs. Some of the revenues are reinvested in local economies. Did you know that a wide variety of fair-trade food products are available in Canada?
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