A Tropical Oasis in Buffalo

By Linda Tancs

When you visit the Buffalo and Erie County Botanical Gardens, you’ll find a tropical oasis under the Palm Dome, home to a beautiful and diverse collection of palms and other tropical plants native to areas throughout the world like the Foxtail Palm. Native to Queensland, Australia, this rare palm was unknown to botanists until 1978. The dome is just one of many interconnecting indoor gardens featuring an aquatic garden, an Asian rainforest, succulents, exotic flowers and the largest public ivy collection in the world. The gardens are located in Buffalo, New York, easily accessible via the New York State Thruway or a public bus from downtown.

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Billed as the Great North American Eclipse, a total solar eclipse will cross North America on April 8, 2024, passing over Mexico, the United States and Canada. The path of the eclipse begins in Mexico, entering the United States in Texas, and traveling through Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine. The eclipse will enter Canada in Southern Ontario, and continue through Quebec, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and Cape Breton. This will be the last time any solar eclipse will be visible within the United States until 2045. 

Be prepared! So long as supplies last, you can purchase eclipse glasses and other accessories, like a phone app and photo filter, from American Paper Optics, a NASA-approved manufacturer. The link in the preceding sentence is an affiliate link, which means that if you click on the link and purchase merchandise from the page, then I may receive a small commission.