If you think of San Francisco , surely the first thing that comes to mind is its famous steep streets that even gave name to a series of the 80s, by the way, one of the ones that most marked my childhood. You will also see the image of the no less famous tram circulating through these streets. What surely does not cross your mind is that San Francisco is the largest Botanical Garden on the west coast of the United States .
Officially called the San Francisco Botanical Garden at Strybing Arboretum , it has almost 23 hectares in which there are more than 7,500 species and is in the Golden Gate Park of the American city. It was founded in 1890 although its construction could not be carried out due to lack of funds until 1926, when Helene Strybing sponsored it and it was named after her.
If you like to enjoy nature in the middle of the city, put on your tennis shoes because you will take a few walks and, above all, you will have a great time spending a whole day seeing the different sections into which the San Francisco Botanical Garden is divided. In the area of the so-called “Mediterranean Regions”, you can see species from a multitude of origins, such as Chile, South Africa , the Mediterranean or some native to California.
In the "temperate climates" zone, you have several gardens with Asian or Australian plants. In the "Mountains of the tropics" you will see two forests, the Cloud Forest with species from Central America and the one with the same name but originating in Southeast Asia. In the other area you will find special species that are difficult to find elsewhere, with almost 10 gardens where all of them are distributed. All the species can be conserved with guarantees thanks to the Mediterranean climate of the area, but as they do not have greenhouses there are many plants that they cannot have since they would not last.
If you want to visit it, you will pay $ 7 and the minors $ 5 or $ 2, depending on their age. If you travel as a family, you can enter with another adult and one or more children for only $ 15, so it makes up a lot and the children will learn a lot as well as enjoy seeing a lot of animals. San Francisco residents never pay, and everyone else has free access on the second Tuesday of each month, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years. It opens every day from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. between April and October and from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. between November and March. Of course not everything is looking, they have a store where you can buy many of the plants that you will have seen throughout the day. Without a doubt a fantastic attraction that should become a must if you are traveling to San Francisco.