The Tropical Dome within the Mount Coot-tha Botanic Gardens was an initiative of the Brisbane City Council in the 1970s. Lord Mayor at the time, Clem Jones, was particularly interested in the development of the Geodesic Dome that was planned and developed in USA and Canada by Architect Buckminster Fuller to grow Giant Water Lilies (Victoria amazonica). Geodesic Domes are known for being lightweight, however, they are very strong and the clear plastic panels allow for the necessary light for photosynthesis to take place.
The original design drawing for a Geodesic Dome from the Patent application in 1954 by Architect Richard Buckminster Fuller.
Design and Construction
Deane Miller, the Brisbane City Council Landscape Architect responsible for the overall landscape plan for Mount Coot-tha Botanic Gardens wrote away for the specifications of a Geodesic Dome. The specifications featured in an architectural journal that had been built in the Queen Elizabeth Gardens in Vancouver, Canada. As a result, approval to build the Tropical Dome was granted. The Tropical Dome was completed and then opened on December 15, 1977 and has since become a priority destination for visitors to the gardens and has since reached iconic status.
Tropical Dome during construction. Built in 1977 by Contractors Barclay Mowlem.
The dome is 28 metres in diameter and nine metres high, and provides a tropical climate close to the natural growing conditions for plants that wouldn’t normally grow outdoors in Brisbane. This internal display has a central focus of a large pond which features small aquatic plants and fish.
Plant Collection
The Tropical Dome allows visitors to discover plants from tropical regions of the world including aroids, calatheas, heliconias, caladiums, palms, epiphytes and vines. Visitors can also see a variety of tropical food crop plants in the temperature–controlled section of the dome including Indian Arrowroot, Africa Nutmeg and Cocoa.
The space within the dome is climate controlled allowing for increased temperature, humidity and air moisture successfully mimicking the conditions preferred by the tropical plant species it houses.
There are many special plants housed in the collection that you won't readily see elsewhere. The Jade Vine, Strongylodon macrobotrys is listed as Vulnerable and Endangered. Native to the Philippines, the Jade Vine is one of the most ornamental tropical flowering vines in the world. Strongylodon is normally pollinated by bats in the wild. It is rare and very special for this specimen to flower here and perhaps an opportunistic bat was able to enter through an access point, perhaps a door left open or through one of the holes in the Geodesic roof of the dome and drink down the flower nectar covering itself in pollen as it moved from flower to flower.
Jade Vine, Strongylodon macrobotrys
Another special plant is Amherstia nobilis, The “Pride of Burma”, ”Queen of Flowering Trees”, which is extinct in the wild. A monotypic, tropical tree reaching 15 metres in height, described in 1865 with no other specimens having been seen or recorded since. Well known for its vibrant red blooms it is extremely difficult to propagate.
The Pride of Burma, Amherstia nobilis
Interior of the Tropical Dome featuring the structure, central pond and extensive plantings
The Tropical Display Dome is open 9am-4pm daily.
This article originally appeared in "Lilygram", the newsletter available to members of the Friends of Brisbane Botanic Gardens and Sherwood Arboretum
Next month's Lilygram newsletter will feature the Sir Thomas Brisbane Planetarium as part of the series on the “Buildings of the Mount Coot-tha Botanic Gardens.
The author wishes to acknowledge Maria De Lange, Librarian at Brisbane City Council Mount Coot-tha Botanic Gardens Library and Tanya Gomez Horticulturalist (Organanico Horticulture)for their research assistance for this article.
Author: Ashley Nicholson
Add comment
Comments