Orchids and Medicinal Plants - Two Rooms Worth a Detour
A stop on Washington DC National Mall Walking Tour, a free self-guided tour.
The Botanic Garden keeps a large collection of orchids, and the Orchids house always has many of them in flower, rotated in from the greenhouses so the display changes all year. Look for the range of shapes, from tiny blooms smaller than a fingernail to big, frilly ones, many of them in the colors and forms that lure their insect pollinators.
A few rooms away, Medicinal Plants shows plants from around the world used to treat illness, some in traditional healing and some as the source of modern drugs. It makes the point that scientists still study plants for new medicines.
On the way, you may pass World Deserts, where cacti and other succulents show how plants survive extreme dryness.
Next, step outside and walk west to the outdoor gardens.
More on Wikipedia: Orchid · Medicinal plants
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