Eala Botanical Garden

Eala was founded in 1900 as a research garden for tropical agriculture, and at its height it held several thousand species across three hundred and seventy hectares along the river, with an arboretum, palm collections and experimental plots. Funding collapsed and the garden has been reclaimed in part by the forest around it, so what you walk through now is a mixture of planted specimens, overgrown avenues and secondary growth. The mature trees are the reason to go: enormous specimens planted over a century ago, now in a forest of their own making.

History

The garden, first called Bokoto, was created through the efforts of Émile-Ghislain Laurent, a Belgian botanist from the agricultural faculty at Gembloux in the service of the Congo Free State, and it was inaugurated on 2 February 1900 to record the flora of the region and study its agricultural potential. Covering 371 hectares of primary forest, swamp forest and savanna, it was counted among the most important tropical gardens in the world, with a herbarium of some 7,760 specimens and exotic fruit trees such as mangosteen, rambutan and Brazil nut; its first catalogue of plants and seeds for exchange appeared in 1908, a model farm bred livestock suited to the climate, and in 1958 a zoological and botanical museum was opened. The garden sent samples to Belgian and Italian laboratories until the early 1970s, but from 1974 it declined for lack of funding and fell into disuse (Wikipedia, Eala Botanical Garden).

What's there

• The old plantings - century-old specimen trees, some enormous, along the original avenues.
• The palm collection - remnants of one of the larger palm collections assembled in Africa.
• The river frontage - the garden's edge on the Congo, with pirogues passing.
• The reclaimed sections - areas where the forest has grown back over the planted plots.

When to go

The drier windows, December to February and June to August, make the paths easier. Rain is possible in any month here. Mornings are best for birds and slightly cooler.

Things to know

The garden is not maintained to anything like its former standard and many collections are gone or unlabelled. Paths are overgrown and a guide from the gate makes the difference. Mosquitoes are abundant and the humidity is severe.

Nearby

Mbandaka is a short drive west along the river.

Key facts