The National Arboretum is a big place—446 acres. That’s the size
of about 339 football fields. An arboretum is an outdoor space that has a collection
of plants, especially trees, that are special in some way. (Arboretum means
“collection of trees” in Latin.) The National Arboretum was created
by Congress in 1927 as the nation’s official location for trees, shrubs,
and other plants that government scientists and horticulturists—people
who work in gardens—want to collect and study. Since 1927, thousands of
different types of plants have been planted here. You can find these plants
in special collections like the National Herb Garden—where plants that
are useful to people are displayed—or the Asian Collections—where
most of the plants in this collection are from countries in Asia. These are
just two of the fifteen collections and gardens that you can visit.
We’ve created this special tour for kids to introduce you to some of the Arboretum’s most interesting plants and places (actually, we tried to pick the most weird, cool, and gross plants to share with you!). We start at the Administration Building where visitors can come to ask questions and to figure out what they want to see. The tour takes you to all points on the compass, though—north, east, south, and west. (Look at the big map of the Arboretum grounds and find the north arrow. It points to north. Once you know where north is, you can find anything, as long as you know which direction to go.)
Take the virtual tour, then plan your visit to the Arboretum to see the plants
and places in person. You can print the map and a list of the tour stops by
clicking
here. Have fun!
Virtual Tour Options:
Start
here, at the beginning
Go directly to a specific tour stop by clicking a specific spot
on the Map below
Browse thumbnail images of the
Virtual Tour with links to each specific spot
Parents and teachers click
here for information on how to use the tour as a field trip
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Back to the Arboretum Home Page
Last Updated February 20, 2009 10:36 AM
URL = http://www.usna.usda.gov/Gardens/collections/VirtualTours/KidsVirtualTour.html
