Havana Attractions - Cuba's National Botanical Garden

The National Botanical Garden of Cuba was founded in 1989 in the south part of Havana City with an extension of 600 hectares and which shows today around 4 thousand vegetable species. This Garden is part of the University of Havana, and its main goal is to promote the care of nature and the recognition of the vegetable world, especially, the autochthonous flora.

It has been organized in several restricted areas with certain characteristics: plains of Palm trees, pine forests, Eastern humid forests, wilderness, Mogote vegetation (mogote is a rock formation typical from Pinar del Rio), coastal scrublands; and a sample of the tropical flora from Asia, Africa, The Americas and The Antilles, Australia and Oceania, and other specialized collections (Palmetum, Archaic Forest, the Ekman Collection and the Collection of Economical Plants). Outside those areas, the visitor can enjoy a collection of ornamental aquatic and land plants, including a section dedicated to plants with trunks especially designed by nature to store water.

One of the main attractions of this institution is the Japanese Garden inaugurated in 1989, a work by the Japanese landscape architect Yoshikuni Araki. Located in the phytogeographical area of Southeastern Asia, this garden has an extension of 5 hectares. There, plants belonging to this Asian region are shown, along with others taken from others parts of the world to create the landscape environment "Kaiyu-Shiki-teien" (garden for walking) in which by means of the "mie-gakure" technique, the visitor can see the whole landscape from any point in the garden. It has a cascade, a small lake and a mirador.

The scientific collection of the Botanical Garden of Cuba is stored in greenhouses near the administrative buildings. If a visitor desires to go inside, he/she has to have a previous appointment with the specialists. This collection has specimens of the flora from Cuba and the rest of the world. It also has a herbarium (the second largest in the country) with more that 100 thousand specimens of the Cuban flora and a specialized library with around 4700 titles of books and 1084 titles of periodicals.

The tours around the Garden are always guided by a specialist, who will be able to provide the visitor with all the knowledge of the tropical flora. Being a specialized institution for over 30 years, the technical and professional staff have been in charge of improving the areas on display and plant species, as well as protecting the plants from damage that can be caused by hurricanes.

The collections of live plants being cultivated, especially the native and endangered ones, have a differentiated attention; attention that has increased due to the programs in charge of collecting genetic material in natural areas. The acquisition of seeds and sprouts from other intuitions, national and foreign, has made possible the increase of the collections ex situ. The Garden has also promoted the food culture and the ecologic food in Cuba by means of its gastronomic chain, especially the vegetarian restaurant El Bambu.

This introduction to Cuba's National Botanical Garden was written by a Cuba travel expert from Cuba For Less, a specialist in fully customizable Cuba vacation packages.

A Garden For South Africa - Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden

Kirstenbosch is one of the most famous and beautiful botanical gardens in the world and first opened in 1913. Botanical gardens are different from parks as they are places where plants are grown for research, conservation, education and enjoyment.

Kirstenbosch lies on the eastern slopes of Table Mountain and above the garden is a Mountain peak that looks like a giant teddy bear and this is what is known as Castle Rock. On hot summers you could even hike to the top of Table Mountain by following a path from the gardens all the way to the top. Its also loads of fun to play in the mountain streams that flow through the garden and children love to hunt for tadpoles, fish and crabs but the Botanical gardens do ask that you return them before returning home.

Many of South Africa's 20 000 indigenous plants are useful to people. In the useful plants garden at Kirstenbosch you can find plants used in different parts of the country for medicine, food and drink, dying cloth, and building houses.

When you walk through Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens it is like taking a tour of South Africa. You could visit the Botanical Society Conservatory and Mathew's rockery to see how plants survive in hot, dry deserts or Cool off in the shade of Forrest trees in the Dell and Braille Trail. The Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens is a great place to start getting to know the fynbos of the Western Cape in the Protea, Erica, Restio and Peninsula Gardens. Visit the Garden Soon! It truly is like seeing the whole country in one garden!?

Greg is proudly South African and lives in Cape Town. He enjoys creating websites about products he has purchased and giving a fair and honest review on them for potential buyers or info seekers. Here is his latest website about the Celtic knot necklace and the Celtic necklace in general.