The University of South Florida Botanical Gardens are located on the campus of the

University of South Florida The University of South Florida (USF) is a public research university with its main campus located in Tampa, Florida, and other campuses in St. Petersburg and Sarasota. It is one of 12 members of the State University System of Florida. USF i ...

Tampa, Florida Tampa () is a city on the Gulf Coast of the United States, Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Florida. The city's borders include the north shore of Tampa Bay and the east shore of Old Tampa Bay. Tampa is the largest city in the Tampa Bay area and ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

, and consist of of developed gardens plus of natural greenbelt. It is a member of the

American Public Gardens Association The American Public Gardens Association, formerly the American Association of Botanical Gardens and Arboreta, is an association of public-garden institutions and professionals primarily in the United States and Canada. Over the last six decades, ...

, American Horticulture Society Reciprocal Admissions Program, Greater

Temple Terrace Temple Terrace is an incorporated city in northeastern Hillsborough County, Florida, United States, adjacent to Tampa. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 26,690. It is the third and smallest incorporated municipality in Hillsb ...

Chamber of Commerce, and

Visit Florida Visit Florida (stylized as VISIT FLORIDA) is Florida's official tourism marketing corporation, serving as Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of M ...

and receives about 35,000 visitors annually. The gardens are open to the public during weekday business hours, and on shorter weekend hours. Admission is $5 for adults.

History

The botanical gardens were established in 1969 for use by the Biology Department in the USF College of Arts and Sciences. In the early 1970s many of today's temperate, subtropical, and tropical trees and shrubs were planted. During the late 1970s and 1980s, the palm garden, the wetland forest, and sand scrub beds were planted. New structures and demonstration gardens were built in the 1990s. Today, it is part of the Department of Geography, Environment and Planning in the College of Arts and Sciences at USF.

Collection

The gardens contain over 3,000 taxa of plants including:

fruit In botany, a fruit is the seed-bearing structure in flowering plants that is formed from the ovary after flowering. Fruits are the means by which flowering plants (also known as angiosperms) disseminate their seeds. Edible fruits in particu ...

trees,

bonsai tree Bonsai ( ja, 盆栽, , tray planting, ) is the Japanese art of growing and training miniature trees in pots, developed from the traditional Chinese art form of '' penjing''. Unlike ''penjing'', which utilizes traditional techniques to produc ...

grass Poaceae () or Gramineae () is a large and nearly ubiquitous family of monocotyledonous flowering plants commonly known as grasses. It includes the cereal grasses, bamboos and the grasses of natural grassland and species cultivated in lawns a ...

es,

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 ...

orchid Orchids are plants that belong to the family Orchidaceae (), a diverse and widespread group of flowering plants with blooms that are often colourful and fragrant. Along with the Asteraceae, they are one of the two largest families of flowerin ...

s, bromeliads,

palm Palm most commonly refers to: * Palm of the hand, the central region of the front of the hand * Palm plants, of family Arecaceae **List of Arecaceae genera * Several other plants known as "palm" Palm or Palms may also refer to: Music * Palm (ba ...

aroid The Araceae are a family (biology), family of monocotyledonous flowering plants in which flowers are borne on a type of inflorescence called a spadix (botany), spadix. The spadix is usually accompanied by, and sometimes partially enclosed in, a s ...

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, ...

, gingers, carnivorous plants,

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 ...

cactus A cactus (, or less commonly, cactus) is a member of the plant family Cactaceae, a family comprising about 127 genera with some 1750 known species of the order Caryophyllales. The word ''cactus'' derives, through Latin, from the Ancient Gree ...

and succulent plants, an herb and scent garden,

wetland A wetland is a distinct ecosystem that is flooded or saturated by water, either permanently (for years or decades) or seasonally (for weeks or months). Flooding results in oxygen-free (anoxic) processes prevailing, especially in the soils. The p ...

forest, temperate forest, subtropical shade garden, and Florida upland scrub and sandhill habitats. The gardens also has a

medicinal herb Medicinal plants, also called medicinal herbs, have been discovered and used in traditional medicine practices since prehistoric times. Plants synthesize hundreds of chemical compounds for various functions, including defense and protection ag ...

garden, which is used by the USF College of Pharmacy for research purposes. While not part of the collection, native wildlife, including butterflies and over 60 species of birds, can frequently be found in the garden.

Festivals and Events

The USF Botanical Gardens hosts events such as flower and garden festivals, where visitors have the opportunity to learn about and purchase plants from vendors. The gardens also host workshops such as beekeeping workshops, where the public can learn about a specific skill. The USF Botanical Gardens have also hosted

yoga Yoga (; sa, योग, lit=yoke' or 'union ) is a group of physical, mental, and spiritual practices or disciplines which originated in ancient India and aim to control (yoke) and still the mind, recognizing a detached witness-consci ...

classes and is a popular wedding venue.

Gallery

Image:USF Botanical Garden1.JPG Image:USF Botanical Garden2.JPG Image:USF Botanical Garden3.JPG Image:USF Botanical Garden6.JPG Image:USF Botanical Garden4.JPG Image:USF Botanical Garden5.JPG

External links

USF Botanical Gardens
official Web site
USF Plant Species Catalog

References

Botanical gardens in Florida Tourist attractions in Tampa, Florida

Botanical Gardens 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 ...