For almost 50 years, the Botanical Museum in Berlin has been displaying sixteen small dioramas, each of them showing a different vegetation type. These dioramas are very specific in their idealized presentation of vegetation types which can be found around the world and are unique with respect to their downscaled size of 1:10 or 1:20. Most notable is the exclusive focus on plants and their diversity in the specific habitat on display. Artfully elaborated by various artists in the 1950s and 1960s, today these botanical jewels both challenge and enrich our efforts to communicate vegetation changes and threats. The contribution focuses both on the genesis and scientific background of these elaborate objects, as well as on their potential and delimitations as contemporary agents of knowledge transfer in science.