Originally built in 1895, the Palm House has maintained a similar feel over the past 100 years. Called the "Jungle Room" by many visitors, the Palm House is high in humidity and watered frequently. It houses a collection of plants from tropical regions of the world. 

Many of the plants, or their products, may be familiar: banana, Musa x paradisiaca, cacao, Theobroma cacao, rubber, Hevea brasiliensis, and cinnamon, Cinnamomum zeylanicum, to name a few.

One of our oldest specimens is the prickly cycad, Encephalartos altensteinii. It is a cycad with fernlike leaves and pinelike cones, and was planted as early as 1896, coming from the Durfee Conservatory at the University of Massachusetts.

Kid's Audio Tour stops:
Palm House Overview - Stop 140
Rubber Tree - Stop 141
Chocolate - Stop 142
Banana - Stop 143
Epiphytes - Stop 144
Bamboo - Stop 145
Biodiversity & Extinction - Stop 146

Adult Audio Tour stops:
Palm House Overview - Stop 340
Layers of the Rainforest - Stop 341
Encepholartos altensteinii - Stop 342
Quinine - Stop 344
Cola - Stop 345
Rainforest Biodiversity & Extinction - Stop 346