The Botanical Garden of Barcelona – El Jardí Botànic de Barcelona

I spent the last week of April vacationing in Barcelona, Spain and of course had to visit the botanical garden (even though I later had to spend hours and hours shopping and browsing shoe stores to be granted indulgence for spending a day among plants on Mount Montjuïc ;-)


Cereus hildmannianus (hedge cactus / queen of the night)

The botanical garden of Barcelona was opened on April 18, 1999 so most of the plants are still quite young – the garden is worth a visit today but has the potential to become an absolutely amazing garden in a generation or two when the plants mature. The main focus is on plants from the Mediterranean climate regions (the homoclimatic zones of California, Chile, the Mediterranean basin, South Africa, and Southern Australia) so cacti are not predominant.


Beschorneria yuccoides flowers

Still you can find lots of interesting succulents like the stand of Beschorneria yuccoides (Mexican Lily, Red-hot poker), a stemless plant with an impressive bright red inflorescence ranging from 1 to 1.8 meter long.


Beschorneria yuccoides (Mexican Lily) stand

Speaking of fantastic inflorescences I also have to mention the Furcraea bedinghausii that flowered during our visit.


Furcraea bedinghausii flower, close-up


Furcraea bedinghausii inflorescence


Flowering Furcraea bedinghausii

The garden is situated next to the stadium, Estadi Olímpic de Montjuïc, that generates a lot of noise when a game is on. It was a slightly weird experience when the peaceful garden suddenly buzzed with the singing and shouting from the stadium.


Estadi Olímpic de Montjuïc as seen from the botanical garden

Actually two botanical gardens are located on Montjuïc. The construction work done in relation with the Olympic facilities built in 1986 seriously affected the stability of the Historic Botanical Garden and it was decided to build a new one (the one we visited). We tried to locate the historic garden, without luck (it was said to be located on the opposite side of the stadium from the new garden, but we couldn't locate it with certainty... we found what looked like an old park on some extremely steep slopes, though).

You can read more about the Botanical Garden of Barcelona at their website. If in Barcelona, make sure to also visit the Cactus Garden, Jardins de Mossèn Costa i Llobera.