Lancetilla Botanical Garden, Tropical research station in Tela, Honduras
Lancetilla Botanical Garden is a botanical garden and arboretum in Tela, Honduras, with more than 5000 plant species across 1681 hectares divided into a natural reserve, research plantations, and an extensive arboretum. The collection includes tropical food crops and rare tree species from Asia, Africa, and South America that grow along marked trails and clearings.
Wilson Popenoe founded the garden in 1926 for the United Fruit Company to study tropical food crops and develop new cultivation methods. The Honduran government later took over the facility and transformed it into a publicly accessible research center for botany and agricultural science.
The botanical garden takes its name from the Lancetilla River, which flows through the grounds and supplies fresh water to the plantations. Visitors walk along shaded paths between bamboo groves and palm clusters, where biologists regularly conduct field research and test seeds from across Latin America.
The garden lies 7 kilometers (4 miles) southeast of Tela and offers guided tours through the collections, including the largest mangosteen plantation in the Americas. Early morning hours work best for walks when temperatures are cooler and bird activity reaches its peak.
The facility hosts more than 250 bird species and forms a vital segment of the Mesoamerican Biological Corridor for wildlife preservation. Some of the oldest trees date back to the founding period in the 1920s and now reach considerable heights above the canopy.
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