Lankester Botanical Gardens

Costa Rica’s forests are full of orchids — more than 1,200 species. On 27 acres of the Jardin Botanico Lankester (Lankester Botanical Gardens), near the town of Paraíso, about 1000 species of native and exotic orchid species are displayed. The Gardens are the legacy of Charles Lankester, an English botanist who made Costa Rica his home in the late 19th century. The setting for such a fabulous orchid collection is an outdoor jungle garden that might best be described as semi-formal. Cobblestone paths meander through groves of native bamboo and forested glades. Bromeliads, philodendrons, diefenbacchia and anthuriums grow wild on the trees but also in formal beds. Now managed by the University of Costa Rica, the Gardens are a great introduction to tropical forest species and an excellent place to bird watch or simply relax. To see the mass blooming of Cattaleya skinneri, Costa Rica’s showy, mauve national orchid, visit in March and April.

Besides its renowed orchid collections, the Gardens host other important plant collections, patches of natural secondary tropical premontane forest, a butterfly garden and facilties intended for botanical research.

Note: There is a paved turn-off road to the Lankester Botanical Gardens between Cartago and Paraiso. This turn-off road is the same road you take to get to a dirt road that gives you access to the top of Finca de Cynthia. There is also a dirt road at the bottom of Finca de Cynthia accessed from the road between Paraiso and Orosi (which is currently closed due to a recent landslide).