Karoo Desert Botanical Garden

Worcester sits in the rain shadow of the Cape Fold mountains, and the garden takes that as its subject: about 154 hectares of which a small part is cultivated, all of it devoted to plants of the arid west - succulents, quiver trees, vygies, stapelias and a large collection of the small stone-mimicking lithops that look like pebbles until they flower. It is the only botanical garden in South Africa dedicated to desert and semi-desert flora. The rhythm is inverted compared to a European garden: the show is in late winter and spring, from about August, when the succulent Karoo annuals and vygies open in sheets of colour, and the summer is when everything shuts down and waits. Paths are short and level, there is a small braille trail, and the natural section above the cultivated beds runs into hillside Karoo veld with a longer walk.

History

The garden was first set up in 1921 near Matjiesfontein and moved to Worcester in 1945, and it is now one of nine National Botanical Gardens run by the South African National Biodiversity Institute (Wikipedia, Karoo Desert National Botanical Garden).

What's there

• The succulent collection - quiver trees, vygies, stapelias and stone-mimicking lithops.
• The inverted season - the display peaks in late winter and spring, not summer.
• The only desert garden - the country's single botanical garden for arid flora.
• The natural section - hillside Karoo veld above the cultivated beds.

When to go

August to October. Two hours. Outside that window the garden is green-grey and quiet.

Practical notes

Out of season it looks bare - that is the vegetation, not neglect. Summer heat in Worcester is severe with limited shade. The cultivated area is small and walked in an hour. Some stapelias smell of carrion when flowering, deliberately.

Nearby

Worcester is adjacent; the Breede River valley wine farms are around it.

Key facts