Lankester Botanical Garden

History

After some previous times in Costa Rica from 1900 onwards, Charles H. Lankester moved from England to Costa Rica in 1910, and around the same time began collecting orchids. Collecting samples, he sent them to orchidologists at Kew Gardens for identification. In 1924, he bought a coffee farm, known as Las Cóncavas from Francisco Quesada near Cartago, Costa Rica. On the farm was a large lagoon which attracted migratory birds. Near the lagoon, Lankester created an area which he called El Silvestre (uncultivated), which was reserved for orchids and other tropical plants. In 1955, he sold the rest of the farm, retaining only El Silvestre. When Lankester died in 1969, his daughter Dorothy inherited the property. In 1973, Dorothy sold the farm to the University of Costa Rica on the condition that it would be retained as a botanical garden. At the instigation of Rafael Lucas Rodríguez, the funds to secure the purchase were raised by donations from the Costa Rican Orchid Society, the American Orchid Society and the Stanley Smith Horticultural Trust. In 1979, Dora Emilia Mora de Retana was named first director of the garden. Mora worked to preserve the botanical garden and promote it as a research facility. Under her direction, UCR developed a course on orchidology in 1984 and the garden slowly grew to become an important center for study in the Caribbean and Central America.