The Balata Garden (french: jardin de Balata, ; 3 hectares) is a private

botanical garden A botanical garden or botanic gardenThe terms ''botanic'' and ''botanical'' and ''garden'' or ''gardens'' are used more-or-less interchangeably, although the word ''botanic'' is generally reserved for the earlier, more traditional gardens, an ...

located on the Route de Balata about 10 km outside of Fort-de-France,

Martinique Martinique ( , ; gcf, label=Martinican Creole, Matinik or ; Kalinago: or ) is an island and an overseas department/region and single territorial collectivity of France. An integral part of the French Republic, Martinique is located in ...

, French West Indies. It is open daily; an admission fee is charged.

History

The garden was begun in 1982 by horticulturist Jean-Philippe Thoze and opened to the public in 1986. It is set on former farmland with picturesque views of the

Pitons du Carbet The Carbet Mountains (, or ''Carbet Nails'') are a massif of volcanic origin on the Caribbean island of Martinique. The mountain range is a popular tourist, hiking, and rock climbing destination. Geography The scenic Carbet Pitons range occup ...

. Today the garden contains about 3,000 varieties of tropical plants from around the world, including 300 types of

palm tree The Arecaceae is a family of perennial flowering plants in the monocot order Arecales. Their growth form can be climbers, shrubs, tree-like and stemless plants, all commonly known as palms. Those having a tree-like form are called palm ...

s. It also contains good collections of

anthurium ''Anthurium'' (; Schott, 1829) is a genus of about 1,000Mantovani, A. and T. E. Pereira. (2005)''Anthurium'' (section ''Urospadix''; subsection ''Flavescentiviridia'').''Rodriguesia'' 56(88), 145–60. species of flowering plants, the largest ...

begonia ''Begonia'' is a genus of perennial flowering plants in the family Begoniaceae. The genus contains more than 2,000 different plant species. The Begonias are native to moist subtropical and tropical climates. Some species are commonly grown ind ...

s, bromeliads,

cycad Cycads are seed plants that typically have a stout and woody (ligneous) trunk with a crown of large, hard, stiff, evergreen and (usually) pinnate leaves. The species are dioecious, that is, individual plants of a species are either male o ...

heliconia ''Heliconia'', derived from the Greek word (), is a genus of flowering plants in the monotypic family Heliconiaceae. Most of the ca 194 known species are native to the tropical Americas, but a few are indigenous to certain islands of the we ...

, mahogany, '' Musa nana'', and

bamboo Bamboos are a diverse group of evergreen perennial flowering plants making up the subfamily Bambusoideae of the grass family Poaceae. Giant bamboos are the largest members of the grass family. The origin of the word "bamboo" is uncertain, ...

(

Dendrocalamus ''Dendrocalamus'' is a tropical Asian genus of giant clumping bamboos in the grass family. It is found in the Indian subcontinent, China, and Southeast Asia. '' Dendrocalamus giganteus'' is one of the tallest of bamboos, capable of reaching heig ...

References

Jardin de Balata

AuJardin entry (French)

Martinique Nature entry (French)

Balata, Jardin de Fort-de-France Balata, Jardin de {{France-garden-stub

History

See also

References