The wingspan of the tailed jay can be as wide as 12 cm. | © Thomas Zeidler
In the cold winter months, a visit to the “Tropical Butterflies” exhibition is a welcome highlight for young and old alike. The pandemic deprived people of this special experience for three long years. Now at last, the exhibition – showing butterflies in all phases of their life and at close quarters – is once again open to all.
Still in their cocoons, the exotic creatures are flown in from special butterfly farms in Costa Rica and Malaysia. The hot and humid climate in the greenhouse surrounds them with ideal conditions. Within a few days of their arrival at the Botanical Garden, they start to emerge from the cocoons. More than 400 butterflies from the tropical regions of the Americas and Southeast Asia will then be free to flutter around the aquatic plants greenhouse until mid-March. The exhibition gives visitors a unique opportunity to immerse themselves in the fantastical world of these fragile creatures, in every phase of their life: as eggs, caterpillars, cocoons and in their full, majestic splendor. A fortunate few will perhaps be privileged to witness how different species emerge from their cocoons, or to watch their intricate mating dances and the deposition of the eggs.
Tickets: 6.50 euros / 4.50 euros (discount rate). For more information, please visit the Botanical Garden website.
LMU collaborates closely with the Botanische Staatssammlung München (State Botanical Collections in Munich). The cooperation goes back to the year 1820 and was initiated by the naturalist Carl Friedrich Philipp von Martius, LMU's first Professor of Botany, who was also the Director of the Botanische Staatssammlung München. Since then, the two positions have always been linked. Professor Gudrun Kadereit, who holds the Chair of Systematics, Biodiversity and Evolution of Plants at LMU, is the current Director of the Collection and the Botanical Garden.