This small, unassuming greenhouse just on the edge of the Ball State campus is more than meets the eye. The Rinard Orchid Greenhouse is home to a collection of orchids.
"We are one of the largest collegiate orchid collections here in the United States. We have about 2,000 different species of orchid throughout the greenhouse. Some are rare and endangered," says Halyn Ferris, curator at the Joe and Alice Rinard Orchid Greenhouse. It's a refuge for those rare and endangered plants that have been confiscated from the environmentally devastating illegal orchid trade.
"We're one of 80 places in the United States that if an illegal orchid was brought over international lines, we could get a call to get that orchid to help rehabilitate it and conserve it for future study and research," states Ferris.
Walking through the collection puts you up close and personal with a lot of plants—carnivorous plants, edible plants—but the stars of the show here are orchids. Across three rooms that range from warm rainforest to cool cloud forest, you can find a dizzying variety of orchids, each uniquely adapted to its environment.
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