No more than 40 kilometres away from Costa Rica’s Capital San Jose, 4 kilometres past the city of Cartago on the road to Paraiso and Turialba, the Lankester Botanical Gardens are located. Officially founded in 1973, but the history of the botanical garden goes back to the 40’s of the twentieth century, when the British amateur botanist Charles H. Lankester started to study and collect epiphytic plants, working together with renowned scientists at that time. His private farm turned into a botanical garden with a incredible scientific value and paradise for botanic enthusiasts. After his death the gardens were placed in the care of the University of Costa Rica with the help of the American Orchid Society and the Stanley Smith Horticultural trust. Today the Lankester Botanical Gardens offer a unique opportunity to admire the many treasures of the rainforest such as orchids, bromeliads, heliconias, palms, and bamboos. The Lankester Botanical Garden is famous for its wide collection of orchids, since 15,000 of the 28,000 species worldwide can be seen in its gardens. Bromeliads take advantage of the ideal climate in the Central Valley around Cartago and all of the 200 native species are on display. The collection of more then 100 species of endemic heliconias comes with a spectacle of humming birds pollinating the plants and other birds eating the fruits, turning the botanical garden into a paradise for bird watchers. Bamboo is not a native plant to Central America and was introduced from Asia where it had been in use for centuries as a robust construction material. The plant flourishes now in Costa Rica’s tropical climate and the Lankester Botanical hosts the biggest bamboo collection of the country. Palm trees are an icon for the tropics. The trees provide a number essential products, such as palm oil, fruits (like ‘pejibaye’), shoots (the delicious palm hearts), construction materials (wood for construction and leaves for roofing). The Lancaster Botanical Garden has a collection of tall palms and their specific undergrowth and some decorative species as well. When the botanical garden was founded 35 year ago the six hectare area was mainly a pasture with abandoned crops. The introduced plants and native plants have adapted well to the pre-moutain climate and formed a unique new secondary forest eco-system with a rich animal life. Scientifically the Lankester Botanical Garden plays an important role in stimulating botanical research and documentation and publishes its own scientific journal ‘Lankesteriana’, distributed to hundreds scientific institutions worldwide.