Missouri Botanical Garden

Opening to the public on October 1, 1960, the Missouri Botanical Garden’s Climatron®, was the first geodesic dome to be used as a conservatory. The term Climatron was coined to emphasize the climate-control technology of the greenhouse dome based on the principles of R. Buckminster Fuller. With no interior support or columns from floor to ceiling, the Climatron allows more light and space per square foot for plants than conventional designs.

The interior gardens are designed on a tropical rain forest theme and the 1962 Founders Fund Award to The Garden Club of St. Louis completed the final financial link to make possible the innovative design and development of an area called Misty Ridge. This ingenious ridge system linked the upper level of the Climatron’s design to its lower level.

Misty Ridge featured Rhizomatous begonias from the uplands of Central and South America and African violets and other gesneriads from the mountains of Africa. Australian tree ferns, Peruvian cherimoya trees and many exotic plants were found throughout the ridge area.

Then in 1988 the greenhouse closed for extensive renovations and was opened two years later with a completely re-landscaped interior. Misty Ridge was no longer a part of the design and the area where it stood now features ferns and cycads.