Botanical Garden offers stress reduction with butterflies, summer temperatures

Visitors walking through the Botanical Garden's Butterflies Go Free exhibit are often seen with a new friend latched onto their clothes, sometimes without their noticing.

The social butterflies fluttering about the 29 C Main Exhibition Greenhouse are happy to rest their wings on a visitor, especially if they're wearing a brightly coloured shirt.

The 50 species occupying the greenhouse have even been specially selected for how well they get along with each other.

Organizers hope by creating a space for such spontaneous encounters, visitors will leave feeling a renewed connection with nature.

Nature and humanity

There are about 2,000 butterflies and moths in the greenhouse until April 30 for the annual Butterflies Go Free event.

The team at Spaces for Life a grouping of four nature museums: the Botanical Garden, Biodome, Insectariumand the Rio Tinto Alcan Planetarium want to draw visitors' attention to the impact nature has on their wellbeing.

Look inside the exhibit with a 360 video

The theme at Spaces for Life this year is "Here's to Life," which focuses on biophilia, the relationship between nature and humanity.

"More and more research suggests that nature is good for us," said DaphnLaurier-Montpetit, the coordinator of scientific and leisureactivities for the Botanical Garden.

"It's good for our mental health, our happiness, all the things in life that makeus happier. And that's what we want people to feel when they enter the greenhouse."

There are many places to sit in the exhibition space, a design feature intended to invite people to stop and absorb their surroundings.

The temperature is kept at between 24 C and 29 C, which makes lingering even more appealing to winter-weary Montrealers.

Nature deficit disorder

Laurier-Montpetitpointed to research that suggests children, in particular, aren't getting as many hours in nature as they used to. This, she said, can have a negative impact on them.

"We are finding that sometimes spending time in nature can help reduce stress and anxiety,"Laurier-Montpetitsaid.

Researchers increasingly speak about "Nature-deficit disorder," and are currently trying to quantify its impact on the mental and physical health ofchildren.

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Symptoms can range from anxiety to depression, chronic fatigue, obesity and lower productivity, according to RichardLouv, author ofLast Child in the Woodsand one of the first to use the term.

Laurier-Montpetit hopes that after visiting the exhibit people will be inspired to incorporate nature into their lives by venturing out into the forest more, or planting flowers around their home.

Flowers, of course, attract butterflies.

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