San Diego Botanic Garden

General view of the Quail Botanical Gardens.

Thorny detail.

The San Diego Botanic Garden, formerly Quail Botanical Gardens, is a botanical garden in Encinitas, California, USA. At 30 acres (12.1 ha) the garden includes rare bamboo groves (said to be the largest bamboo collection in the United States), desert gardens, a tropical rainforest, California native plants, Mediterranean climate landscapes, and a subtropical fruit garden. The gardens are open to the public daily; a parking fee is charged. The name of the facility was changed in 2009 to better reflect the garden's status as a regional attraction.

Until 1957 the gardens were the private estate of Ruth Baird Larabee, at which time she donated her house and grounds to the County of San Diego. The Quail Botanical Gardens Foundation was established in 1961.

Today the gardens include nearly 3,000 varieties of tropical, subtropical, and California native plants. Collections include the climate-based gardens for the New World and Old World Desert, Coastal Sage Scrub, Sub-Tropical Fruit, a Pinetum, a Palm Canyon, as well as geographically organized gardens for Africa, Australia, Arid Madagascar Garden, Arid South America, the Canary Islands, Cape South Africa, Central America, the Himalayas, the Mediterranean, the Middle East, New Zealand, the Pan-Tropical Rainforest with a 60-foot waterfall, and the Pacific.

Plant varieties include fuchsias, hibiscus, bamboos, proteas, cacti and succulents, as well as other drought-resistant plants including Australian shrubs. Herbs, water plants, wildflowers, perennials, brugmansias, cork oaks, and palms are also featured.

Of particular interest is the maturing Cork Oak (Quercus suber) forest. Paths wind through a cluster of twisted and majestic trees whose bark has been used for making corks for thousands of years.

See also

• List of botanical gardens in the United States
• California native plants

External links

• San Diego Botanic Garden Homepage