a groundbreaking ceremony for a new complex of buildings including the Paul and Swanee DiMare Science Village, Dr. Jane Hsaio Tropical Research Laboratories, Clinton Family Conservatory, and Burns Building. The Science Village complex opened December 2012 and was designed by Miami architect Max Strang. Fairchild Tropical Botanic Gardens has been, and continues to be, a significant contributor to tropical American horticulture and conservation. Collection The collection at Fairchild Gardens includes rare palms, cycads, orchids, and bromeliads. The collections also include different varieties of ginger. Fairchild has the largest collection of tropical bamboo in the world, with 125 species of bamboo. The Michaux Bahamas Collection includes native woody plants and flora from botanical expeditions to the Bahamian islands. The Montgomery Palmetum consists of the most documented palm collections with species from all over the world. Fairchild features some of the world's most exotic tropical fruits, such as Durian, from the Amazon, Borneo, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand. Fairchild Gardens’ Tropical Flowering Trees collection displays over 740 species of flowering trees from all over the world. The most famous tropical flowering tree in Fairchild Gardens is the cannonball tree. The tree was planted in 1938 and is known for its fragrance. It is one of the only cannonball trees in the United States. Fairchild Gardens is home to the only rainforest in the continental United States. Fairchild Garden's two-acre rainforest features waterfalls and cascades throughout the rainforest. The rainforest is composed of plants collected from the amazon. Also, a misting system was created to emulate an authentic rainforest. Research and conservation Fairchild scientists conserve tropical plants, attempting to avoid the extinction of species and their habitats. This work leads to quantifiable conservation benefits to Fairchild's priority geographic investment regions (South Florida, Caribbean, oceanic islands, tropical Africa, and Madagascar) and plant groups (palms, cycads, tropical fruit, and tropical trees).These have been selected because of conservation need, institutional expertise, and history. Main activities include field exploration of important plant areas, conservation assessments, species recovery, and direct support to in-situ conservation. Fairchild partners with area colleges, including Florida International University, University of Miami, Miami Dade College, and University of Florida, to train graduate and postdoctoral students. In 2014, Fairchild Gardens and the City of Coral Gables partnered with the Million Orchid project to restore the orchid's prominence in Miami-Dade County after native orchids were destroyed during the development of Miami more than a century ago. Fairchild