Karoo Desert National Botanical Garden

Worcester, South Africa, South Africa

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Karoo Desert National Botanical Garden is a national botanical garden on the outskirts of Worcester in the Western Cape, lying at the foot of the Hex River Mountains about 120 km north of Cape Town. Covering about 154 hectares, it is largely a natural Karoo shrubland landscape with only around 11 hectares under cultivation, and it specialises in succulents and other arid and semi‑arid plants, making it one of the few true desert‑type botanical gardens in the world and the only major succulent garden in the southern hemisphere. The garden displays hundreds of naturally occurring species and also propagates some 300 protected and threatened plants, with the landscape at its most spectacular from late July to September (or roughly August to October) when annuals and vygies (mesembs) burst into colourful flower carpets; visitors can explore short signed trails such as the Shale and Grysbokkie routes, enjoy picnic areas, and enter daily for a modest fee.