Since the 17th century Madeira Island had been waiting for a botanical garden, a dream that came true in 1960. Located 3 km from the centre of Funchal at Quinta do Bom Sucesso – a private Quinta belonging to the Reid’s family – where the climatic conditions are much in favour of exuberant vegetation.
The Botanical Garden boasts harmonious forms, contrasting colours and more than 2000 plants. It is government owned and, apart from being a beautiful place of leisure, it also serves as a Science and Culture Centre. Throughout the gardens visitors can find the plants labelled with their scientific names, common name and origin.
There are four main areas to visit:
- Indigenous and endemic: This is the place where one can see plants exclusively from Madeira and other Atlantic islands like the Azores, Canaries and Cape Verde. There are about 100 indigenous plants exhibited, ranging from those characteristically found on the more exposed slopes of Madeira to those typical of mid-altitude vegetation and trees found in Madeira’s natural forest, the ‘Laurissilva’ forest.
- Tree Garden: Here you find plants from ecologically opposed areas of the earth, like the Himalaya and the Tropics.
- Succulents: The capacity of storing water is what distinguishes the plants in this department, most of them coming from South America.
- Tropical/Cultivated/Aromatic/Medicinal: In this area several tropical and subtropical fruit trees – such as mango, papaya, avocado – as well as coffee trees, sugar cane and popular medicine plants can be seen.
And a few more photos of this beautiful garden:
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