We continue our tour of Hortus Botanicus in Amsterdam by featuring the first of their three greenhouse attractions - The Butterfly Greenhouse. The other two being the The Palm Greenhouse and Three Climate Greenhouse.
Keeping in mind how small this botanic garden is, their greenhouses are relatively small too but all has sufficient interests in them to merit a visit. And of the three, The Butterfly Greenhouse is the smallest.
And speaking of threes, the butterflies are just in one of three adjoining greenhouses. The middle one is used for propagation and not open to the public. The outer ones though are open to visitors.
Baja California to the left and Butterflies to the right
Before we proceed to see the butterflies let's check out the Baja California one first...
Even though we haven't been I'm pretty sure that this greenhouse doesn't do this part of Mexico any justice at all but the plants inside are interesting enough to check out. Gotta love a greenhouse laden with spikies!
We spy spikies!
Tillandsias
Come on guys, at least use terracotta pots!
Imposing enough, a beauty!
I like the way the opuntias weaves itself on to the metal railings
A third ball??
We bypass the middle section and proceed to the greenhouse where the butterflies are...
Butterflies don't usually interest me enough to be my main motivation to visit a place, even if within a botanic garden (in which case the botanic garden is my main motivation to visit). I say that every time but when I actually go and see where they are flying away you immediately you feel how much lively the space is. And how fun they are, feeling like a child again surrounded by them! That answers my question why even some botanic gardens do it, incorporate butterflies as one of their draws (as well as showing their symbiosis with plants).
Such a lively 'feeling' place!
Nectar buffet
Beautiful creatures
Butterfly Motel...fascinating!
Butterfly orgy....
Rash inducing critter
That concludes our look into The Butterfly Greenhouse (and Baja California). Perhaps we ought to include visiting Mexico on our travel bucket list...Mark :-)
