Garden Court - Chocolate, Coffee and Vanilla
A stop on Washington DC National Mall Walking Tour, a free self-guided tour.
The front door of the Conservatory opens into the Garden Court, a bright hall of pools, fountains and colorful foliage. It looks like a classic glasshouse, but it has a theme: plants people use every day, for food, fiber, fuel, medicine, perfume and shelter.
This is the place to see where your breakfast comes from. Look for a cacao tree, whose pods grow straight out of the trunk and hold the seeds that become chocolate. Nearby are coffee shrubs and vanilla, a climbing orchid whose pods are the source of real vanilla flavor. Small signs explain how each plant is grown and used.
The Garden Court is the hub of the Conservatory, with doors leading off to the other rooms. Next, walk through to The Tropics.
More on Wikipedia: United States Botanic Garden · Theobroma cacao · Vanilla
Stops on this tour
- Washington Monument
- National Museum of African American History and Cu
- National Museum of American History
- Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History
- National Gallery of Art
- United States Capitol
- United States Botanic Garden
- National Museum of the American Indian
- National Air and Space Museum
- Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden
- The Smithsonian Institution Building - The Castle
- Freer Gallery of Art
- Jefferson Memorial
- World War II Memorial
- Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial
- Korean War Memorial
- Lincoln Memorial
- Vietnam Veterans Memorial
- White House Ellipse
- White House
- Lafayette Square