One of the many places that we make sure we visit whenever we are in Madeira is their botanical garden. If Monte is great for staging, size, and atmosphere (but lacking in variety except for cycads), the botanical garden is a great complement to it due to the variety of plants that can be found in it.
Spikies and colourful bedding galore! I've given up waiting for that moment when no one was ambling along the view so this is the least populated photo I've managed to take.
With the favourable temperate and year round spring like conditions for most of the island, plant specimens that not only thrive there, they get too huge proportions too!
Towering aloes. They are probably a good 20 feet or more so tall.
Being a botanical garden it has many different sections and for this installment I'll be highlighting the xerophyte and desert plant section.
As you enter the botanical garden this is the first view you'll see of this xerophyte section
As you start walking into the paths things rapidly become more dramatic
Gaz for scale
No label, perhaps Yucca faxoniana?
A few close ups...
They have an impressive collection...
Tourists can come in handy for scale purposes when Gaz has wandered off
For all the shots with the blue sky as backdrop, not once did I had to squat. The plants really were that tall!
This botanical garden is well maintained except for one thing: their plant labelling. It has been gradually declining and on our visit very few have have labels on them.
But it's a minor inconvenience compared to how huge and dramatic a lot of their specimens are!
Mark :-)
