Forget last weekend’s snow and visit a place where sugar cane, bamboo and banana trees grow on Iowa State’s central campus.

As a part of Countdown to Veishea, a celebration of the colleges at ISU, the botany department will give tours of the Bessey greenhouse from noon to 1:30 p.m. Wednesday. The botany department, along with the English and speech communications department, will represent the 24 departments of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

To start off the day’s festivities, the English and speech departments will host tables in front of Parks Library from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. The speech department will have videos, tongue twister activities and speech exercises to show off the activities of the department. It will also present a display illustrating the requirements for speech majors and minors.

Students, faculty or staff interested in touring the greenhouse can take the elevator in Bessey Hall to the fifth floor where tour guides will be waiting. Tours will last approximately 20 minutes.

“We’ve got the best teaching green house that I know of in the middle west,” said George Knaphus, ISU botany professor and adviser to the LAS Council. The greenhouse showcases over 1,000 plants in various stages of development, he said.

Kathryn St. Croix, co-chairwoman for Countdown to Veishea, said she is excited about the number of departments that are participating in the four-day event.

“Countdown to Veishea showcases all the colleges and gives students a chance to see what people in other colleges are doing,” she said. Thursday, the colleges of engineering and education will be presenting their programs.