Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden

Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden
Top: view of the gardens facing northwest with Table Mountain dominating the skyline, the garden's symbol flower, Strelitzia reginae, is visible in the foreground. Mid-left: inside the conservatory housing plants from arid biomes. Mid-right: the Centenary Tree Canopy Walkway (also known as the "boomslang"). Lower left: Colonel Bird’s Bath (also known as Lady Anne Barnard’s Bath). Lower right: the indigenous herb garden.
Type	Botanical garden
Location	Cape Town, South Africa
Coordinates	33°59′15″S 18°25′57″E / 33.98750°S 18.43250°E / -33.98750; 18.43250
Area	528 hectares (1,300 acres)
Created	1913; 111 years ago (1913)
Operated by	South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI)
Website	sanbi.org/gardens/kirstenbosch

Kirstenbosch is an important botanical garden nestled at the eastern foot of Table Mountain in Cape Town. The garden is one of 10 National Botanical Gardens covering five of South Africa's six different biomes and administered by the South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI). Prior to 1 September 2004, the institute was known as the National Botanical Institute.

Kirstenbosch places a strong emphasis on the cultivation of indigenous plants. When Kirstenbosch was founded in 1913 to preserve the flora native to the South Africa’s territory, it was the first botanical garden in the world with this ethos, at a time when invasive species were not considered an ecological and environmental problem.^{[citation needed]}

The garden includes a large conservatory (The Botanical Society Conservatory) exhibiting plants from a number of different regions, including savanna, fynbos, karoo and others. Outdoors, the focus is on plants native to the Cape region, highlighted by the spectacular collections of proteas. It is a level IV accredited Arboreta by the ArbNet Arboretum Accreditation Program and The Morton Arboretum.^[1][2]