This corner of Africa is just one facet of the enormous undertaking to landscape the latest Walt Disney theme park. Unlike the traditional Disney parks where the landscaping complements themed buildings, here the landscape, in many areas, is the stage and set. "We cast trees as characters into the landscape, taking into consideration size, shade and accent," explains legendary Walt Disney Imagineering (WDI) Landscape Architect Bill Evans. "Then, if you can't use your ideal tree, you look around for somebody who can play that part. It's sort of like an "understudy"; we keep a large cast of characters at hand." Thus, the live oaks act as "stand-ins" for acacias. However, many of the trees, shrubs and grasses have indeed been gathered from around the globe, as Lead Creative Designer and Principle Landscape Architect Paul Comstock can attest.

Perhaps Comstock describes it best. "Animal Kingdom has the potential to influence millions of people each year. Here, Disney can inspire a new understanding of the diversity of life and the role that humans must play if habitats are to survive into the future," Comstock explains. He continues, "Of course, Disney is in the business of entertainment. This is a new type of theme park, one that takes guests into the realm of animals both real and imagined-- through dramatic landscapes in a vivid backdrop."

Landscape highlights in the 500-acre park include the tropical Oasis at the Entry; the Cretaceous Forest and magnolia grove in DinoLand U.S.A.; and the riverine environments, grasslands and Gorilla Falls in Africa. Lush tropicals and subtropicals from all around the world-- flowering trees, vines and shrubs, like jacarandas, tabebuias and orchids, and broad-canopied evergreens-- create a sense of escape. DinoLand U.S.A. is dramatically different, with ancient trees and plants, like ferns, monkey puzzles and cycads; here there are 20 species of magnolia, including an angiosperm that dates back to the Cretaceous period. Africa includes a ride-through safari attraction and live animals roaming about. So, planting patterns were based on what designers think the animals will do, and what the guests will experience.

Hunting for tropical trees and plants to create "real" African and Asian landscapes can be just as exciting as any wild animal safari. For Comstock and the WDI team, it meant facing dangers in far-off mountains, riding bucking jeeps and waddling elephants, and traveling for more than seven years to thirty-seven states and twenty-eight foreign countries in search of rare plants. Comstock's mission to "bring'em back alive" has resulted suddenly in one of the world's greatest collections of tropical botanical wonders.

Animal Kingdom features plants from every continent on Earth except Antarctica. The first tree planted at the site in December 1995 was an authentic Acacia xanthophloea, grown from a seed that Comstock acquired in Africa. And now, the overall plant numbers are astounding: 40,000 mature trees, 16,000 of them grown at the Walt Disney World Tree Farm, including 850 species of trees (40 species of palm trees alone). There are 2,000 species of shrubs; 2.5 million in all-- and 325 different types of grasses. And there are enormous collections, like the third largest cycad collection in all of North America-- more than 3,000 of the ancient, fern-like plants. The landscape team also tapped nurseries in California, Maryland, Oregon, Texas, Arizona and Florida; they searched as far as South America for the millions of plants needed to create the "show."

Animal Kingdom is the first theme park where "the show eats the landscape," says Comstock. Gorillas play with plants, elephants trample tender grasses, and giraffes tend to strip leaves from trees. Designers have planned an 8-acre "browse farm" that will help feed the animals with a crop of acacia, hibiscus, mulberry, elaeocarpus and a variety of shrubs to replace natural forage for giraffes, gorillas, baboons, elephants and antelope. While some of the plantings are located outside the reach of the animals, others will be a part of the daily menu. Comstock is "holding his breath," knowing the grazing beasts will be dining on his prized landscape. But the amount of grazing land was established after careful study so that, with the fast growth possible in Florida's tropical climate and the ability to replant from nurseries outside the park, Landscape Architects can keep up with the animals' needs.

As Animal Kingdom matures, the savannah will become a naturalized forest as the trees grow up and the young plants underneath thin out. "This is a park that will continue to grow and evolve," says Comstock. "We have this living laboratory to work with." Safari Village is dominated by the park's great icon, The Tree of Life. At 145-feet high and more than fifty feet wide at its base, The Tree of Life creates a canopy nearly as wide as a football field that shelters a variety of animals below. Its trunk is hand-carved with a spiraling tapestry of 325 animal forms representing the diversity and richness of animal life on earth and symbolizing humankind's respect for nature. Drawing from "a wealth of inspiration in the natural world," the landscape team custom-designed a broad array of site amenities with which to furnish the park. Using predominantly recycled plastic materials to simulate precious woods like bamboo, designers fashioned benches, tables, waste receptacles, railings and light fixtures throughout the park.

"We really want to inspire a stewardship of these landscapes," explains Comstock. "By creating a wild but manageable habitat for both animals and human beings, Disney has raised the bar to a new level of surroundings. We dramatize the close encounters between guest and inhabitant, thereby representing, not exactly duplicating an african savannah." Probably more than any other Disney project, Animal Kingdom offered Comstock a lead role on the WDI team, a role not usually designated to Landscape Architects. Landscape Architects represented a vital component of the core design team of artists, conservationists, and animal experts. Working together on such a project that combines the best of several professions, Comstock explains, helps "the designers and artists grow every single day."

Using a clever play on words, Paul Comstock describes Disney's Animal Kingdom as a "new species" of theme parks, one that really pushes the limits of plant materials. By combining various elements of successful and beautiful zoos, amusement parks, and botanical gardens across the nation, the WDI Team has created a very unique combination of education, leisure and entertainment-- a kingdom, if you will, that pays tribute to and glorifies the plant and animal world around us. lasn