Lancetilla Botanical Garden

Lancetilla was founded in 1926 by the United Fruit Company as a research station to test crops for the plantations, run by the botanist Wilson Popenoe, and it grew into one of the largest tropical botanical collections in the hemisphere. It holds several hundred hectares of planted collections and a much larger area of protected forest behind. The bamboo avenue, the fruit collections from Asia and Africa, and the palm plantings are the set pieces, and the bird list on the trails is long.

History

For a long time Lancetilla was the only botanical garden in Honduras, until the UNAH garden opened in 2005, and one of the largest in Latin America. Several of its administrative and research buildings keep the style of the 1930s and 1940s, when the garden belonged to the United Fruit Company; today it is part of the National University of Forest Sciences (Wikipedia, Lancetilla Botanical Garden).

What's there

• The bamboo avenue - a corridor of giant bamboo arching over the main walk.
• The fruit collections - Asian and African species brought in for trials, many now fruiting.
• The palm and timber plantings - long rows from the original research programme.
• The birds - a heavy list on the forest trails behind the planted area.

When to go

February to May is the driest window on this coast. Early morning is best for birds. Fruiting varies through the year and the guides know what is ripe.

Things to know

The planted collections are the accessible part; the forest reserve behind is much larger and mostly not visited. Labelling is uneven. Mosquitoes are persistent and the heat in the middle of the day is heavy.

Nearby

Tela is five kilometres north, and Punta Izopo and Jeannette Kawas are on either side of the bay.

Key facts