Fukuoka City Botanical Garden Greenhouse (福岡市植物園)

Fukuoka already had a zoological and botanical garden before the war: opened in 1933 in Higashi ward to commemorate the imperial enthronement (御大典紀念福岡市動植物園), it closed in 1944 because of the conflict. The present zoo opened on 22 August 1953, and the botanical garden joined it twenty-seven years later, on the grounds of the former Hirao water purification plant (平尾浄水場).

The botanical garden's opening ceremony took place on 1 June 1980 and it opened to the public on 3 June. The greenhouse was part of the original facilities: on 31 March 1981 it held 600 species and 21,000 plants. Some pieces of the collection had been gathered before the opening, such as a Beaumontia grandiflora donated on 22 September 1979, which first flowered on 23 January 1984, and a kapok tree (パンヤ) introduced in March 1979 that flowered on 6 February 1983. A lookout was completed in the garden on 22 August 1982. The City of Fukuoka still owns and runs the whole site, which combines the zoo and the botanical garden.

The greenhouse covers about 2,800 m². It is organised in separate rooms according to plant type and native habitat; the official website counts seven, while the Japanese Wikipedia speaks of eight zones. They include a gallery house planted with bougainvillea and climbers, two orchid rooms, one for rare and horticultural orchids and the other for botanical species, a room for aquatic and wetland plants, a cactus and succulent room and a room for potted plants.

The centrepiece is the large greenhouse (大温室), devoted to tropical rainforest. An upper level lets visitors climb up and look at the vegetation from above. A gallery room hosts exhibitions and workshops, and two orchid gardens complete the complex. The sources consulted give neither the architect, nor the height, nor the structure of the building.

The greenhouse holds about 1,200 species, out of the roughly 2,600 the garden counted in 2018. The large greenhouse shows how useful tropical plants grow and bear fruit: papaya, mango and coffee carry their crops among rainforest plants. The orchid rooms combine rare species, horticultural varieties and botanical orchids, while the aquatic room gathers tropical and subtropical plants of water and banks.

The cactus and succulent room shows many species, and the potted-plant room begonias and indoor plants. Some plants in the collection have a documented history: the Beaumontia grandiflora donated in 1979 and the kapok tree introduced the same year first flowered in the greenhouse in 1984 and 1983 respectively.

The greenhouse stands in the municipal botanical garden in Chūō ward, Fukuoka, next to the city zoo. About an hour is enough for the greenhouse, and two to three hours for the whole garden. The large greenhouse and its viewing level deserve particular attention, and the gallery room hosts exhibitions and workshops through the year. The garden's website lists, season by season, the plants in flower in the greenhouse, which helps in choosing when to visit.