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San Diego Botanic Garden
(formerly Quail Botanical Gardens)
The following introductory information is from the Quail Botanical Gardens Visitor's Guide
Welcome to Quail Botanical Gardens, a place of beauty in all seasons. Ancient
cycads, majestic palms, flowering trees and the largest bamboo collection in
the United States are part of the diverse and botanically important collections
you will discover here. Thanks to a wonderfully mild climate, we can grow plants
from all over the world, and there is something always in bloom.
Reminder: To keep our plants and visitors alive and well, we ask you to please stay on the paths or lawns, leave your pets at home, smoke only when you have left the Gardens, and resist that temptation to touch or pick up plant materials. Quail Botanical Gardens was originally the private residence of Ruth Baird Larabee, an avid plant collector and naturalist. In 1957, the land was donated to the public as a plant and wildlife sanctuary, and is currently opetated by the Quail Botanical Gardens Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization. Donations to the Gardens are tax deductible. The mission of Quail Botanical Gardens Foundation, Inc. a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, is to actively participate in the conservation of rare, threatened and endangered plant species, to serve the botanical and horticulture needs of San Diego County, and to exist as an urban retreat. |
Garden Areas
There are 5 major areas in the Gardens corresponding to different climates around the world, with each major area subdivided into specific geographic areas. The areas include Desert climates, Tropical climates, Subtropical climates, Mediterranean climates, as well as several demonstration gardens. |
Desert Gardens
Bamboo Display Garden
This garden celebrates the beauty and variety of bamboo. The San
Diego Botanic Garden is recognized around the world for this
extensive collection of bamboos, and for introducing many new
types of bamboos to North America through special quarantine
greenhouses. In this display garden, you will find plants
native to Asia, Africa, and North and South America.
Is bamboo a tree or shrub? Neither -- bamboos are giant members of the grass family (Poaceae). There are more than 1000 species of bamboos and these plants are among the world's most useful. As versatile as trees, bamboos provide food, paper-pulp, construction and decorative materials, landscaping, and even religious and artistic inspiration. Here, you can discover the beauty of our bamboo species through their diversity of shape, texture, color and even sound. In 1979, the American Bamboo Society was founded at Quail Botanical Gardens. |
Tropical Black Bamboo Gigntochloa Atroviolacea Indonesia |
Tropical Rainforest
Why are Tropical Rainforests Important?
Tropical rainforests have the greatest biodiversity of any habitat
on Earth. In other words, there are more kinds of plants and
animals in the tropical rainforest than anywhere else. This
treasure chest of plants and animals holds tremendous promise
as a source for new medicines and improved food crops.
These massive communities play a major role in stabilizing the earth's atmosphere in two ways:
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Demonstration Gardens
Fruits Without Borders |
Today people use thousands of plant species for medicines, clothing,
shelter and, of course, food.
About 2000 plants are used for food worldwide. Large-scale modern agriculture grows about 150 species. But many people in industrialized nations base their diet on four crops: corn, rice, wheat, and the potato. In the tropics, some fruit like coconut, bannana, and breadfruit are common staple foods that play a critical role in the daily diet of many people. We could eat a new fruit every day for an entire year if all of the world's fruits were available to us. Quail Botanical Gardens grows fruiting trees, shrubs and vines from around the world. All these species will grow successfully in home gardens near the coast in Southern California. |
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Ancient Food - The Fig |
The fig (Ficus carica) is a deciduous tree bearing one of the first
fruits cultivated by man. Ancient peoples filled their bellies with
different wild fruits but must have held the fig in very high esteem.
It was not only enjoyed fresh but was readily dried in the sun and
stored against times of scarcity. The fig must have played a vital
role in the dawning of civilization in both the Fertile Crescent and
ancient Egypt.
Figs were introduced into California in 1769 at Mission San Diego de Alcalá - about 25 miles south of here. Have you ever eaten a black-skinned fig? If so you probably were enjoying the fruit of the 'Black Mission' the very same variety brought to California by Spanish padres! |
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Banana Boulevard |
The banana (Musa spp.), a native of Southeast Asia, is a
mini-course in botany best described by explaining what it
is not. First, there is no such thing as a banana tree.
Flowering before you is a giant HERB - non-woody plant whose aerial portion is relatively short lived. In the tropics, some varieties soar to a height of 30 feet and, as such, claim the title of "The World's Tallest Herb." Also, what appears to be a trunk is really a pseudo-stem composed of tightly wrapped leaf sheaths from which new leaves unfurl. The true stem is an under-ground corm from which new plants called "pups" will emerge. |
Assorted Individual Plants
The following plants were included on this webpage due their unusual beauty, or by just being unusual. |
Pitcairnia Caerulea Sapphire Tower Bromeliaceae Chile |
Collin's Banksia - Banksia collinia
Proteaceae Protea family Southeast Australia This tree has large fruits with abundant nectar that attracts small marsupial mice as pollinators. |
Brachychiton Rupestris Queensland Bottle Tree Sterculiaaceae Queensland, Australia Can withstand drought |
Native Plants/Native Peoples Trail
Wander amoung the plants of the coastal sage scrub habitat and travel
back, through centuries in time, to learn how the Kumeyaay people used
native plants.
What is the Coastal Sage Scrub Habitat? A community of plants that has grown naturally along San Diego's coast for thousands of years. Why is this Habitat important today? By preserving and studying this community of plants, we nuture possible opportunities to
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Native Plants
What Plants Make Up Coastal Sage Scrub?
A community of plants adapted to drought and fire. The species found in a particular area will depend upon soil conditions and the lay of the land. Coastal sage scrub, intermixed here with southern maritime chaparral, thrives throughout much of coastal California and northern Mexico, in areas from sea level to altitudes of 2,000 to 3,000 feet. After a rain or on a foggy morning, the coastal sage scrub gives off the crisp, herbal aroma of its namesake, sage. Here at Quail Botanical Gardens, you'll find California sagebrush (Artemisia californica), white sage (Salvia apiana), black sage (Salvia mellifera) and purple sage (Salvia leucophylla). Other plants to look for include: flat-top buckwheat (Eriogonum fasciculatum), chamise (Adenostoma fasciculatum), California encelia (Encelia californica), various grasses and forbs, and woody shrubs such as laurel sumac (Malosma laurina) and lemonade berry (Rhus integrifolia). Why Save the Coastal Sage Scrub Habitat? This habitat offers rich gifts in plain wrapping. Sometimes the low oaks, prickly cactus and dry shrubs of the coastal sage scrub community look plain and drab. But that plant community can give us many gifts:
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Seasons come, seasons go
If it's summer or fall you might well be asking, "Where have
all the flowers gone?" San Diego's "spring" season begins
when rains fall, usually during the winter months. The
moisture triggers sprouting of new greens leaves, and
blooming flowers. Insects spread pollen from blossom
to blossom. By the end of the spring season, seeds are
developing.
By summer, many of the coastal sage scrub plants stop to rest in their cycle of reproduction. Leaves and twigs dry out and turn brown. Some plants die back completely, but their roots or bulbs lie waiting underground for the renewing rains of the coming winter. |
Water! Here?
This manmade pond and the plants growing nearby are brought to
you by Quail Botanical Gardens, not by Mother Nature. In San
Diego County, such riparian habitats - areas along
streams and rivers - are usually found in mountains or river
valleys along the coast.
The pond and plants in this riparian habitat give food, shelter and water to wildlife living in the Gardens. Keep your eyes open for birds, insects and lizards. People also need clean, fresh water. Native Americans chose homesites near rivers, creeks and ponds where they could hunt animals, collect food plants, and have drinking water. Although river valleys once covered vast areas of San Diego's coast, these havens for wildlife are diminishing rapidly as people use the land for farming, housing, roadways and commerce. |
It's a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood |
but it's time to move! When seasons changed and food supplies ran low, Kumeyaay (Koo-me-eye) families moved from one home site to another. |
Bands of Kumeyaay traveled from place to place, living wherever the harvests were good and fresh water was plentiful. These bands moved from the coast up into the mountains to gather their favorite acorns from the black oaks. Mile after mile they traveled on foot, up and down the coast, and into Baja California. Moving around, but staying together, the Kumeyaay lived in territorial bands numbering from 200 to 1000. People belonging to the same band lived in separate groups, spread out among many home sites or clustered together in more permanent villages. Each band had spiritual leaders and their governing leader, the kwaapaay (kweye-pie). The kwaapaay could be a man or a woman, chosen as hereditary leader or elected for leadership ability. |
A Dome Shelter
protected people's tools and food supplies. Using branches
from arroyo willow trees, like the ones by the pond, the
Kumeyaay (Koo-me-eye) would first build a framework.
Then the builders completed their 'ewaa (whaah) by
adding an outside thatch of tule reeds or smaller willow
branches. The Kumeyaay constructed different sizes and
shapes of 'ewaa. The larger shelters could hold several
families.
A woven mat covered the entry opening. A small fire could warm their shelter, but fire pits for cooking were always outdoors. The Kumeyaay still use 'ewaa for sweat lodges, heating them with fires and hot rocks. |
Once lost, never regained?
People enjoy the gentle climate, fertile soils and rolling landscape
of the coastal environment, but we often push out the native plants
and animals. Many human activities injure the patches of coastal sage
scrub that do remain: breaking habitat up into small islands; invasion
by non-native plants; military exercises; over-grazing; destruction by
off-road vehicles, and disruption of the natural cycles of fire and
succession of new growth.
Today an estimated 66-90% of San Diego's original coastal sage scrub habitat has been lost to houses and condos, shopping malls, manufacturing plants, office buildings, golf courses, parking lots, freeways, agriculture and grazing. Lost habitat threatens nearly 100 species of plants or animals with extinction, including the California gnatcatcher, coastal cactus wren, orange-throated whiptail lizard, the Encinitas baccharis (Baccharis vanessae), the San Diego thornmint (Acanthomintha ilicifolia) and the Del Mar manzanita (Arctostaphylos glandulosa ssp. crassifolia. Yes, we are a force for great destruction of the coastal sage scrub habitat. But we can also use "people power" to conserve such special habitats. |
The San Diego Botanic Garden is located at 230 Quail Gardens Drive, Encinitas. See map. |
Items of Interest...
Related Links |
San Diego Botanic Garden - official page |
American Bamboo Society |
American Bamboo Society - Southern California chapter |
Kumeyaay Nation |
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