Rio de Janeiro Botanical Garden (2018)

I love the Botanical Garden, it's my favorite place in Rio and truly underrated. The biodiversity is amazing, great spot for picnics with the kids, photos and so on. Plus it's super cheap and the staff is very welcoming.

I highly recommend their orchids exhibition, which contains 630 unique orchids.

It's a really nice place. My anegdote from being there in 2012 is that we reached a part that was kind of closed off and walked on a concrete wall or something. There was a large space below, and a small lizard crossed our path and I looked down and saw something that resembled a komodo dragon about 25 meters away from us. I casually mentioned to my wife without wanting to panic, oh let's go back and not get in trouble with that thing, and she laughed at me because she thought I was scared of the tiny lizard. Then she almost freaked out.

These lush green images are warming to cold humans in northern latitudes.

Some tidbits on plants and labor globalization:

> John VI created a gunpowder factory in order to guarantee the supply of gunpowder to the entire Portuguese empire and also the security of the new government headquarter[s] ... enchanted by the beauty of the place, Dom João VI created on June 13, 1808 in the vicinity of the factory, an acclimatization garden. Its role was the introduction and acclimatization of great value exotic plants normally transported to Europe, coming from the East, a traditional spice trade center by the time.

Artificial monopoly, piracy, non-compliance and a century of roots:

> ... the imperial palm blossomed and began to bear fruit in 1829. Serpa Brandão, director of the Garden between 1829-1851, looking for preserving the institution's monopoly on this particular specie, determined that its seeds had to be burned annually. However, it's said that the slaves working in the garden woke up during the night to climb the palm trees, in order to harvest their seeds and sell them ... After being an attraction in the garden for 163 years, it [the first imperial palm tree] was struck by a lightning bolt in 1972 and died. In short, all the imperial palm trees in the garden are descendants of the “palm-mater” (mother palm, in Latin).

> Just to illustrate the fauna, the black-billed toucans are frequently seen on this area.

What a beautiful animal.

When visiting new places I always consider (and often manage to) visit the local botanical garden. It's like a park, but better.

I visited it in June 1964 as a high school senior. I don't remember much because there was this girl in our class that commanded all my attention at the time. I struck out on the girl and missed the garden.

I went there a in 2018 it was truly the best botanical park I’ve been too, would recommend 1/1

Been there in 2014 and again in 2016. It’s a wonderful place and I’ve never seen so many different types of orchids together - shape, size, pattern. Wonderful!

Also, it’s BIG!

I've been there once almost 10 years ago. It was really nice. For me the highlight was the enormous palm trees and the massive lily pads.

Amazing place, I was just there a few days ago while visiting Rio. The orchid collection is one of a kind.

It's a pretty place, about a 20 minutes ride from my home/office. Why is it on HN at all?

Despite being a public park, managed by a governmental entity, there is an entrance fee. Likely to restrict the access of poor people, since it doesn't seem to be lacking funds (the data is public).

There is also a rumor that prince Dom Miguel used to hunt chineses for fun nearby the Chinese view [1][2].

It is a beautiful place and worth visiting, thought.

[1] https://cpb-us-e1.wpmucdn.com/blogs.ntu.edu.sg/dist/f/1912/f... [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iW8mkpO2d-U