By GERRY BARKER
North Palm Beach Life
January 27, 2019

"I dreamed I was a butterfly, flitting around in the sky; then I awoke. Now I wonder: Am I a man who dreamt of being a butterfly, or am I a butterfly dreaming that I am a man?"
--Zhuangzi

You have to enter the Wings Of the Tropics exhibit at Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden in Coral Gables through three sealed doors. That's so the beautiful creatures contained within stay there.

Those beautiful creatures are exotic butterflies -- hundreds of them, in every color and size, flapping their wings through a tropical rainforest.  You are inside the Clinton Family Conservatory, "a one-of-a-kind experience, enhanced further by a stunning display of tropical plants and orchids."

New butterflies are continually introduced by the staff. While their lifespan is short, the amount of beauty they give to the world is unequalled. Take a look ...

Visitors follow pathways
​throughout the rainforest

Everywhere you look ... butterflies!

Photos/Video by North Palm Beach Life

Happiness is a butterfly, which when pursued, is always just beyond your grasp, but which, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you.. --Nathaniel Hawthorne

Visitors are delighted when the butterflies hitch a ride. These Blue Morphos are right at home on a sleeve or hat. Note that when you exit the exhibit, there are mirrors so you can check yourself for any stragglers. 

​​​The Blue Morpho, which hails from the rainforests of Central and South America, is one of the largest of all butterflies. Its bright, iridescent blue wings make it a visitor favorite.

Butterflies love the bright sunshine, and eat by sucking the juice from rotting fruit (center)

"The butterfly counts not months but moments, and has time enough."
-- Rabindranath Tagore