Durban Botanic Gardens

What it is

Durban Botanic Gardens were founded in 1849 and are the oldest surviving botanical gardens in Africa. They sit on a slope above the city centre and have the feel of an old park, with huge fig and palm trees, a lake with water lilies and a tea garden. Botanists know the garden for its cycads, among them a specimen of Wood's cycad, a species that no longer exists in the wild. The orchid house has a display that changes as plants come into flower. Frangipani, strelitzias and flowering trees give colour through the warm, humid year. On some Sundays there are concerts by the lake.

Before you go

• Go in the morning, before the humidity builds.
• Allow about two hours, with tea at the garden kiosk.
• Winter, from May to August, is dry and mild and the most comfortable season.

The flowers you will see

PlumeriaFragrant tropical tree with waxy, five-petaled flowers in many coloursWaterlilyFloating aquatic flowers found in ponds and lakes worldwide

Also part of it, and being written: Orchidaceae, Strelitzia reginae.

Read more

Durban Botanic GardensAfrica's oldest surviving botanical garden in subtropical Durban

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