State Botanical Garden of Georgia Tropical Conservatory

Some of these are even burst­ing with anti-oxi­dants. For cen­turies spices like gin­ger, all­spice, turmeric and pep­per have been val­ued for their abil­ity to pre­serve and fla­vor foods. The use of cin­na­mon can even be traced back to ancient Egypt where it func­tioned as an embalm­ing agent. Now its uses have expanded to treat­ing indi­ges­tion, dis­cour­ag­ing uri­nary tract infec­tions, pre­vent­ing ulcers and pro­mot­ing oral hygiene. In the home fibers, soaps and oils har­vested from trop­i­cal rain­forests become raw mate­rials for dozens of every­day prod­ucts. Bam­boo, palm and maho­gany tim­bers also cre­ate build­ing sup­plies and com­po­nents for fur­nish­ings. Rain­for­est ecosys­tems also con­tribute to our health in a broader sense. On a global scale, these forests act as buf­fers, mod­er­at­ing weather pat­terns and tem­per­a­ture. They are also cru­cial to the main­te­nance of our limited sup­plies of drink­able fresh water. Hun­dreds of pre­scrip­tion med­i­ca­tions are derived from spe­cies native to these habi­tat­s—­com­pounds that treat malaria, heart dis­ease, bron­chi­tis, hyper­ten­sion, dia­betes, dysen­tery, etc. The true eco­log­i­cal and eco­nomic impor­tance of trop­i­cal forests is not yet fully under­s­tood, how­ever one thing remains clear: Con­sid­er­ing all of the ben­e­fits that we receive from trop­i­cal forests, conserv­ing these areas and pro­mot­ing their sus­tain­able har­vest is truly imper­a­tive. The Trop­i­cal Col­lec­tion of the Vis­i­tor Cen­ter & Conser­va­tory seeks to fos­ter an appre­ci­a­tion of trop­i­cal plants by show­cas­ing exam­ples of these valu­able spe­cies. We hope that this will bring aware­ness to a habi­tat that sadly cont­in­ues to dimin­ish through­out the world.

The Tropical Conservatory at the State Botanical Garden of Georgia has a Papaya Tree that has Fruit within touching distance