Rio de Janeiro Botanical Garden

Interesting facts

Albert Einstein toured the garden in May 1925, and Queen Elizabeth II walked its paths in November 1968.

In 1812 the first Chinese tea plants arrived from Macau, and about 300 Chinese labourers were brought over in 1814 to grow them.

Mulberry trees were planted here in 1838 in an attempt to start a Brazilian silk industry.

The herbarium held some 600,000 dried specimens in 2014 and was adding about 20,000 more each year.

Its botanical library, with more than 32,000 volumes, is the largest specialised collection on plants in Brazil.

The central Fountain of the Muses was cast in England, its four figures standing for music, poetry, science and art.

The Levada aqueduct, built in 1853 to carry water through the grounds, was restored and given heritage protection in 2005.

When it was founded on 13 June 1808 it was called simply the Acclimatisation Garden, and was renamed the Royal Garden that October.

The uncultivated part of the grounds, about 60 percent of the total, is a remnant of Atlantic Forest where some 140 bird species have been recorded.

Botanist João Barbosa Rodrigues directed the garden for nearly two decades, from 1890 to 1909.

Why it is worth it

The garden began as a royal experiment. In 1808, soon after the Portuguese court fled Napoleon's armies and settled in Rio, the prince regent João, later King John VI, founded it as a place to acclimatise spices and other useful plants brought from the East Indies. It opened to the public in 1822, the year of Brazilian independence, and grew into one of the great tropical gardens of the world: around 140 hectares at the foot of the Corcovado, of which some 54 are cultivated, holding about 6,500 species, with the statue of Christ the Redeemer watching from the ridge above.

Its signature is the Avenue of Royal Palms, a straight ride some 750 metres long lined with more than a hundred and thirty Roystonea oleracea, their smooth grey trunks rising like columns towards feathery crowns far overhead. All of them descend from a single tree, the Palma Mater, which João himself planted in 1809; it grew to almost 39 metres before lightning struck it in 1972. At the heart of the garden, the Frei Leandro lake, named after the Carmelite friar who was the first botanical director, carries giant Victoria water lilies around an iron figure of the sea nymph Thetis.

The rest of the grounds reward wandering. There is an orchidarium with some 700 species, a house of bromeliads, a collection of carnivorous plants, a Japanese garden and a sensory garden with Braille labels. History is scattered through the greenery: stone ruins of the gunpowder factory that once operated here, bronze birds and the figures of Echo and Narcissus by the colonial sculptor Mestre Valentim, rescued from a demolished city fountain, and the stone portal of the old Imperial Academy of Fine Arts, designed by Grandjean de Montigny and moved here when the academy building was torn down. The institution behind it all remains a scientific one, with Brazil's largest botanical library and taxonomists working on neotropical flora.

Getting there

The garden lies in the Jardim Botânico district of Rio's South Zone, close to Leblon (about 2 km). Santos Dumont Airport (SDU) in the city centre is roughly 9 km away.

Rio de Janeiro Botanical Garden

Interesting facts

Why it is worth it

Getting there

Plan your visit

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