Smithsonian goes green

February 13th 2008

Best known for its dinosaur bones, the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History is opening a new butterfly pavilion with a tropical garden, vividly colored plants, warm temperatures and humidity on Friday.

"Butterflies + Plants: Partners in Evolution," will provide visitors an opportunity to get up close and personal with these beautiful, fluttery creatures. This way, individuals will get to discover their million year relationship with plants. This isn't the first time the museum has carried living creatures-the Smithsonian actually has an insect zoo right next to the new butterfly exhibit. "Butterflies + Plants" will offer much more interaction with the butterflies, however.

Associate director Elizabeth Duggal noted the exhibit as, "breathtaking and magical." Open to all museum visitors, the exhibit's main hall, will tell the story of millions of years of co-evolution of plants and butterflies. This relationship has lasted some 200-million years, and each party has influenced the other. Butterflies lived in the Jurassic era and even outlived dinosaurs-there are thousands of species of butterflies and moths around the world.

Contained in the exhibit is a 1,200 square foot butterfly pavilion, a controlled garden which will have around 400 butterflies at any given time.