Botanic Gardens of Toyama Exhibition Greenhouses (富山県中央植物園)

The Botanic Gardens of Toyama were planned from 1989 with the aim of giving the Sea of Japan side of the country its first general botanical garden. The outdoor gardens opened to the public on 1 October 1993. Full opening, with the indoor facilities, followed on 26 April 1996, when the exhibition greenhouses and the Sunlight Hall that serves them came into use.

The complex grew on 18 February 2000 with the completion of the Yunnan greenhouse, devoted to the flora of this province of south-western China. The garden also shows this flora outdoors: the Japanese Wikipedia counts more than a hundred Yunnan species between the greenhouse and the outdoor plantings.

A research institution as much as a showcase, the garden keeps 184 volumes of the Botanical Magazine in its library, a British botanical journal described as the oldest in the world. Its official website also mentions a memorial garden linked to the University of Oxford Botanic Garden and Arboretum. The sources consulted say nothing of any alterations to the greenhouses since their opening.

The exhibition greenhouses form a group of five buildings with a combined floor area of 2,831 m², according to the Japanese Wikipedia. They are reached through the Sunlight Hall (サンライトホール), a covered central hall that links the five houses and serves as a venue for temporary exhibitions and concerts.

Each house corresponds to a habitat or theme: tropical rainforest with tall trees, orchids, plants of the high mountains and the subalpine belt, tropical fruit trees and the flora of Yunnan. This last house, completed in 2000, is divided into two separate rooms, one reserved for camellias and the other for tropical and subtropical plants. The sources consulted give neither the designer's name, nor the height of the houses, nor their method of construction.

The tropical rainforest house recreates dense vegetation dominated by tall trees, with wild plants from tropical and subtropical regions around the world. The orchid house presents wild species from tropical Asia, the Americas and Africa, and permanently displays about 200 potted orchids with colourful or fragrant flowers. The tropical fruit house shows bananas, pineapples, papayas and other fruiting plants.

The alpine and threatened plants house brings together species of the high mountains and the subalpine belt, as well as threatened plants of Toyama Prefecture. In the Yunnan house, the camellia room stands beside a room of tropical plants where the snow banana (スノーバナナ) grows, among others.

The garden covers 24.5 hectares in Fuchū, in the city of Toyama, and presents itself as one of the largest botanical gardens in the Hokuriku region. An hour is enough for the greenhouses, but the whole site deserves half a day, including the outdoor gardens where Yunnan plants are also on show.

The Sunlight Hall hosts themed exhibitions throughout the year. The official website occasionally announces the temporary closure of individual houses, such as the orchid house, so it is worth checking before a visit.