It is located in the city of Coral Gables, Miami-Dade County, just south of Miami, surrounded at the north and west by Matheson Hammock Park.

[1] Fairchild is a museum, laboratory, learning center, and conservation research facility whose main role is preserving biodiversity.

Fairchild's travels brought more than 75,000 plants to the United States, including pima cotton, durham wheat, mangos, alfalfa, nectarines, dates, horseradish, bamboos, and flowering cherry trees.

[6] David Fairchild had retired to Miami in 1935 after a long career at the USDA establishing the Foreign Seed and Plant Introduction Bureau.

According to the gardens website, "No two openings between planting masses or plots are alike; they differ in length, width, shape, orientation, and character.

The Science Village complex opened December 2012 and was designed by Miami architect Max Strang.

The Michaux Bahamas Collection includes native woody plants and flora from botanical expeditions to the Bahamian islands.

[9] Fairchild features some of the world's most exotic tropical fruits, such as Durian,[10] from the Amazon, Borneo, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand.

Testing involves using equipment for the project that emulates conditions on board the International Space Station.

[16] Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden provides educational programs to all age groups, including simple horticultural study, art and painting, photography, and culinary courses.

Through scientific investigation and garden exploration, students learn the fundamentals of botany, landscape, and nature.

The USDA-approved facility has butterfly feeding stations, which include a variety of overripe fruits such as banana and mango.

[20] There is a concrete walkway leading around the landscaped enclosed area where visitors can walk freely among the butterflies that may land in one's shoulders or head.

Triple sets of doors minimize the risk of escape of any of these butterflies that do not belong to the local fauna.

Since 2003 Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden has had art exhibits; artists have included Patricia Van Dalen, Yayoi Kusama, Dale Chihuly, Fernando Botero, Cameron Gainer, Roy Lichtenstein, Franz West, Leyden Rodriguez-Casanova, Ursula von Rydingsvard, Michele Oka Doner, Mark Dion, Joshua Levine, and Claude and Francois-Xavier Lalanne.

Currently exhibits include works by Dale Chihuly, Daisy Youngblood, Freda Tschumy, and Sicis.[timeframe?]

The Fairchild Gardens also offers private events such as weddings, birthday parties, memorials or corporate rentals.