Madeira Botanic Gardens
We visited the Botanic Gardens for a short while - not nearly long enough but we ran out of time. It is famous for its geometric planting (on lots of postcards).
One of the main areas we visited was the Succulent Plants area. This was full of plants that we would call cacti - lots of spikes and architectural shapes but you wouldn't want to bump into any of them (you'd soon know about it).
This section was nicely laid out so you could walk amongst the plants safely and admire their shapes, forms etc.
A second specialist area was the Palm Tree area. Madeira Botanic Gardens has a palm collection featuring the following genera - Brahea, Chambeyronia, Phoenix, Washintonia, Howea and Livistona - not bad when you consider that the palm family (consisting of Palmae and Arecaceae) has 202 genera and c.2,600 species, mainly tropical and sub-tropical.
The third specialist area was the one housing exotic birds. What a racket they made - Jonathon was convinced they were shouting for attention. There were c.300 birds, mainly tropical varieties. Some were free to roam (peacocks, water fowl) whilst others were in large cages which gave them plenty of room to fly around.
There were a couple of ponds with terrapin/turtles although the big turtle seemed more interested in the hedge (perhaps he was trying to escape)
Finally, a few general views and some close up photos of plants - the bouganvillea hedge was beautiful.
There were quite a few hibiscus around - all different colours.
