Kitulo National Park

Kitulo was gazetted in 2005 and is unusual in Africa for being a national park declared to protect plants rather than large mammals: a plateau at around two thousand six hundred metres whose grassland carries some three hundred and fifty species of vascular plant, including well over forty orchids, and turns into a sheet of flowers through the rains. Local people call it Bustani ya Mungu, the garden of God, and botanists the Serengeti of flowers; the park covers about 413 square kilometres and was the first in tropical Africa set up mainly for its flora. Kipunji and Abbott's duiker live in the forest on its edges.

What you'll find

• The flowering grassland - hundreds of species turning the plateau to colour in the rains.
• The orchids - over forty species, some of them found nowhere else.
• The altitude - a plateau at around two thousand six hundred metres, cold at night.
• The edge forest - the montane forest patches around the plateau rim.

When to go

December to April is the flowering season and the reason to come, but it is also when the roads are worst. June to October is dry with little in flower. Nights are cold all year.

Good to know

The flowering season and the season of good roads do not overlap, which is the central problem of visiting. There is very little accommodation and facilities are minimal. Large mammals are scarce, which disappoints visitors expecting a typical park.

Nearby

Mount Rungwe is southwest, and Mbeya is west.

Key facts