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Home / See & Do / Butterfly Center
The Cockrell Butterfly Center
The Cockrell Butterfly Center and Brown Hall of Entomology provide entertainment and education for the whole family! Discover the wonderful world of insects, with fun, interactive games and quizzes, spectacular preserved specimens, and living examples of some of the world’s largest and weirdest arthropods. Enter a stunning, three-story glass structure built around a 50-foot waterfall, a simulated tropical rainforest filled with exotic plants and hundreds of gorgeous, living butterflies. These beautiful, delicate creatures, imported from butterfly farms around the world, will delight you as they flutter through the vegetation, stop to sip nectar or fruit juices, and occasionally alight on lucky visitors. Continue downstairs to the “Insects and Us” section, where you’ll learn about beekeeping, butterfly gardening, mosquito control, and – gulp! – insects as food! Before exiting, those with toddlers in tow will want to stop off at the “Land of Beeyond” to do a puzzle or two, read an insect-themed storybook, or play in the giant beehive.
Discover the Magic of Orchids at HMNS this spring!
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Orchids growing in the
Cockrell Butterfly Center.
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What?
The Houston Orchid Society’s annual Spring Show and Sale
When and Where?
HMNS Grand Hall
Saturday, April 17, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Sunday, April 18, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
During this free two-day event, enjoy 20 lavish exhibits featuring orchids, orchid arrangements, corsages, orchid collectables and educational information. Then, bring the beauty home with you - browse 11 orchid sales booths, with vendors both local and exotic, from as far away as Brazil.
Don’t miss this chance to experience nature’s most magical and beguiling flowers!
For more information see www.houstonorchidsociety.org/show/show.html, or contact HOS Show Chair Holly Miller at hollymil@earthlink.net or 281-597-8792.
Bugs on Wheels
Teachers, learn about our program.
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Peering through the top of
the Cockrell Butterfly Center
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Also included in the Butterfly Center experience is the , which houses many other live insects and their relatives, including some of the world’s largest species. Check out giant horned beetles, bizarre walking sticks, hairy tarantulas, camouflaged mantids, and cuddly cockroaches in the upper level.
The plants in the Cockrell Butterfly Center are of great interest to those with horticultural leanings. You may wish to pick up a guide to the plants to help you learn more about the plants when you visit.
Ever wonder about the gorgeous plants that fill the butterfly habitat? Go behind the scenes with our director of the Cockrell Butterfly Center Nancy Greig, as she reveals one of the museum’s unseen treasures – the greenhouses located on the roof of the Museum.
Discover this hidden garden, filled with hundreds of exotic plants that are used to create our butterfly habitat – and then visit the Cockrell Butterfly Center to see how these gorgeous insects depend on these stunning plants to thrive for yourself!
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Sometimes they might land on you!
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Since it opened in 1994, one of the main goals of the Cockrell Butterfly Center has been to promote butterfly watching, , and other aspects of butterfly conservation. Many of the flowering plants that provide nectar for the butterflies can be grown in Houston gardens, thus providing a welcoming area for these delightful and amazing creatures. Click on the above links to learn more.
Cockrell Butterfly Center Rules
No food, drinks or gum are allowed in the Butterfly Center
No strollers
Visitors should not touch the plants, butterflies or other animals
School groups must provide a minimum of one adult for every ten children
Handicapped access is available via the elevator to all three levels.
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