San Francisco Botanical Garden

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McBean Wildfowl Pond and Primitive Plant Garden at SF Botanical Garden

Pond at Dwarf Conifer collection of SF Botanical Garden

Redwood trail

The San Francisco Botanical Garden (formerly Strybing Arboretum) is a large botanical garden in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park. Its 55 acres (22.3 ha) include over 7,500 varieties of plants from around the world, making it one of the largest on the West Coast of the United States.

Originally laid out in the 1890s by park supervisor John McLaren, funding was insufficient to begin construction until Helene Strybing willed funds in 1926. Planting was begun in 1937 with WPA funds supplemented by local donations, and the arboretum officially opened in May of 1940. As a part of Golden Gate Park, it is officially managed by the city of San Francisco, but the SF Botanical Garden Society plays an important role in maintaining the collection. Formed in 1955, the SF Botanical Garden Society (formerly the Strybing Arboretum Society) operates the Helen Crocker Russell Library of Horticulture, a bookstore, monthly plant sales and offers a wide range of community education programs for children and adults. The Society also raises money for new projects and Garden renovations. Using green building practices, a new Center for Sustainable Gardening is planned to replace the existing nursery. Other planned renovations include a Southeast Asian Cloud Forest and newly paved pathways.

The Garden continues to actively acquire plants; in 2004 it received 1143 accessions totalling over 5,600 individual plants.

The gardens are organized into several specialized collections:

Mediterranean
- California native plants
- John Muir Nature Trail
- Redwood Trail
- Chile
- Cape Province (South Africa)
- Southwestern Australia
- Mediterranean Basin Region
Mild-temperate climate
- Eastern Australia
- New Zealand
- Moon-viewing Garden - a Japanese design
- Takamine Garden - Asian plants
- Temperate Asian Garden
Montane tropic
- Mesoamerican cloud forest
- Southeast Asian cloud forest
Specialty collections
- Primitive plants garden - cycads, etc
- Succulent garden
- Dwarf Conifer garden
- Home Demonstration Gardens
- Garden of Fragrance
- Zellerbach Garden of Perennials
- Dry Mexico
- Magnolias & Camellias

The mild Mediterranean climate is ideal for plants from surprisingly many parts of the world; the arboretum does not include greenhouses for species requiring other climate types.