The Kampong
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Kampong is an 8 acre (32,000 m²) tropical garden incorporating tropical plants of all varieties, with a particular emphasis on tropical fruits. It is located at 4013 Douglas Road in the Coconut Grove area of the city of Miami, Florida, USA.
The Kampong originally started out as a personal collection for the famed horticulturalist and plant collector Dr. David Fairchild. Fairchild’s life’s work was plant exploration. He searched around the world for plants that could be useful and successfully introduced into the United States. In his life, Fairchild successfully introduced around 30,000 different plant species and variations into the U.S. In the midst of his work, Fairchild created a garden that contained many of the plants that he obtained throughout his trips. After his death, the land was purchased by Dr. Catherine Hauberg Sweeney, a botanist, and preservationist. Dr. Sweeney maintained Fairchild’s garden and was vital in its preservation for future use and study. It was Sweeney who transformed Fairchild’s work into a botanical garden and would eventually donate it to the Pacific Tropical Botanical Garden, which would result in the name change to the National Tropical Botanical Garden. The flora that defines The Kampong are tropical fruits, palms, flowering trees, ficus, aroids, and bamboo.
Today, the Kampong has become the mainland campus for the NTBG which has resulted in the construction of dorms, laboratories, and an Education Center to help host numerous education programs.
