Kew Gardens, London

Living examples of Mexican prickly pear cacti (hosts to the cochineal insect used to provide the red dye for Moctezuma's imperial robe), vanilla orchids with their pods, many species of Mexican chillies (in the Temperate House), the tequila cactus with its fierce spines, and rainforest chocolate trees.

If you take your school on a Rainforest Explorer activity at Kew you'll be able to feel fresh cacao seeds and smell the exotic aroma of pure Mexican cacao/chocolate; Kew even has some of the Mexican cacao discs (originally used as money by the Aztecs) made from a special rainforest recipe that won't melt in the steamy rainforest heat of the Palm House at Kew.

Vanilla orchids, Kew Gardens

Photography by Maria Mursell

Barrel cactus, Kew Gardens