Royal Botanical Gardens (Ontario)

Royal Botanical Gardens
Type	Botanical garden
Location	Burlington, Ontario, Canada (Headquarters) Hamilton, Ontario, Canada (Gardens)
Coordinates	43°17′28″N 79°52′33″W / 43.29111°N 79.87583°W / 43.29111; -79.87583
Area	1,100 hectares (2,700 acres)
Created	1929 (1929)
Founder	Thomas McQuesten
Visitors	387,104 (in 2023)[1]
Status	Open all year
Website	www.rbg.ca
National Historic Site of Canada
Official name	Royal Botanical Gardens National Historic Site of Canada
Designated	January 1, 1994[2]

The Royal Botanical Gardens (RBG) is a heritage-listed botanical garden located in the cities of Burlington and Hamilton in Ontario, Canada.^[3] It covers extensive environmentally protected areas, historic sites, and culturally relevant gardens from Burlington to Hamilton. It is one of the major tourist attractions between Niagara Falls and Toronto,^[4] as well as being a significant local and regional horticultural, education, conservation, and scientific resource.

The Royal Botanical Gardens' mandate derives from a Provincial Act of 1941, centred on human interaction with the natural world and protection of environmentally significant lands that form the western tip of Lake Ontario. The gardens cover an area of approximately 10 km by 4 km that is dominated by two coastal wetlands, and landscapes that were carved during the last glaciation, extending from Lake Ontario inland to the plateau of the Niagara Escarpment. The many different gardens and natural areas are accessed through nine public entrance locations. The Royal Botanical Gardens is one of several Prescribed Public Bodies listed under the Ontario Heritage Act.

In 2006, in support of the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity, Royal Botanical Gardens was selected as Canada's National Focal Point for the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation (GSPC) by Environment and Climate Change Canada.^[5]

The 980 hectares (2,422 acres) of nature sanctuary owned by the Royal Botanical Gardens is largely a remnant of the Dundas Marsh Game Preserve created in 1927. The properties now carry many cultural and environmental designations. Multiple national historic site features are associated with area, with the site featuring prominently as a landing and connection point to other regions of the Great Lakes. It is considered an important plant biodiversity hotspot for Canada, with a very high proportion of the wild plants of Canada in one area; is an Important Bird Area according to Bird Studies Canada;^[6] and is part of the Niagara Escarpment World Biosphere Reserve.^[7] More than 1,100 species of plants grow within its boundaries including the Bashful Bulrush (Trichophorum planifolium) which is found nowhere else in Canada, and the largest remaining population of one of Canada's most endangered trees, the Red Mulberry (Morus rubra). Both of these plants are listed as Endangered in Canada under the Species at Risk Act.^[8][9] In 2008, the RBG was designated as an Important Amphibian and Reptile Area by CARCNET, the Canadian Amphibian and Reptile Conservation Network. Several plants listed on various Endangered Species Protection programs are held for protection and education purposes in various garden areas.

Unusually, Royal Botanical Gardens is both the owner of the land under the provincially significant Class 1 Wetland,^[10] Cootes Paradise,^[11] and Grindstone Marsh as well as regulator of activities on the water, despite it being an inlet of Lake Ontario. Water area activity regulation was formerly under the Hamilton Harbour Commission (Now Hamilton Oshawa Port Authority) as part of the areas historical federal port regulation. In the late 1970s the Harbour Commission and Royal Botanical Gardens made an agreement transferring regulation of use of the water area to the Gardens in support of its environmental protection mandate. However, Royal Botanical Gardens has no regulatory control over the quality of water flowing into its wetlands.