The Deerfield Beach Arboretum, also known as the Tree Zoo, is an arboretum

Arboretum

An arboretum in a narrow sense is a collection of trees only. Related collections include a fruticetum , and a viticetum, a collection of vines. More commonly, today, an arboretum is a botanical garden containing living collections of woody plants intended at least partly for scientific study...

 and botanical garden

Botanical garden

A botanical garden The 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. is a well-tended area displaying a wide range of plants labelled with their botanical names...

 located at 2841 West Hillsboro Boulevard, Deerfield Beach, Florida

Deerfield Beach, Florida

Deerfield Beach is a city in Broward County, Florida, USA. The city is named for the numerous deer that once roamed the area. As of the 2010 United States Census, the population was 75,018...

, USA

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. It covers 9 acres (3.6 ha). The Arboretum contains more than 200 different species of trees and palms from around the world, with more than 50 different species of flowering trees.

The Arboretum was founded by Zeke Landis in 1995 with a selection of 22 trees and palms, and has since grown to 325 species (excluding native) of palms, tropical fruit trees, exotic flowering and canopy trees, bamboos, and miscellaneous exotic trees. Arboretum areas currently include: Bamboo

Bamboo

Bamboo is a group of perennial evergreens in the true grass family Poaceae, subfamily Bambusoideae, tribe Bambuseae. Giant bamboos are the largest members of the grass family....

, Butterfly

Butterfly

A butterfly is a mainly day-flying insect of the order Lepidoptera, which includes the butterflies and moths. Like other holometabolous insects, the butterfly's life cycle consists of four parts: egg, larva, pupa and adult. Most species are diurnal. Butterflies have large, often brightly coloured...

 garden, Children's Garden, Exotic canopy trees, Flowering trees, Native canopy trees, Orchid Display, Palm

Arecaceae

Arecaceae or Palmae , are a family of flowering plants, the only family in the monocot order Arecales. There are roughly 202 currently known genera with around 2600 species, most of which are restricted to tropical, subtropical, and warm temperate climates...

 trees, Spice

Spice

A spice is a dried seed, fruit, root, bark, or vegetative substance used in nutritionally insignificant quantities as a food additive for flavor, color, or as a preservative that kills harmful bacteria or prevents their growth. It may be used to flavour a dish or to hide other flavours...

 and Herb

Herb

Except in botanical usage, an herb is "any plant with leaves, seeds, or flowers used for flavoring, food, medicine, or perfume" or "a part of such a plant as used in cooking"...

 Garden, Tropical fruit

Fruit

In broad terms, a fruit is a structure of a plant that contains its seeds.The term has different meanings dependent on context. In non-technical usage, such as food preparation, fruit normally means the fleshy seed-associated structures of certain plants that are sweet and edible in the raw state,...

 trees, and a Wetlands demonstration area.

The plant collection is varied and extensive. Some of the plants at the arboretum include:

• Acacia
  Acacia
  Acacia is a genus of shrubs and trees belonging to the subfamily Mimosoideae of the family Fabaceae, first described in Africa by the Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus in 1773. Many non-Australian species tend to be thorny, whereas the majority of Australian acacias are not...
  
   auriculiformis
• Acer
  Maple
  Acer is a genus of trees or shrubs commonly known as maple.Maples are variously classified in a family of their own, the Aceraceae, or together with the Hippocastanaceae included in the family Sapindaceae. Modern classifications, including the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group system, favour inclusion in...
  
   rubrum
• Acoelorrahaphe wrightii
• African Tulip
• Aiphanes
  Aiphanes
  Aiphanes is a genus of spiny palms which is native to tropical regions of South and Central America and the Caribbean. There are about 26 species in the genus, ranging in size from understorey shrubs with subterranean stems to subcanopy trees as much as tall...
  
   lindeniana
• Albizia
  Albizia
  Albizia is a genus of about 150 species of mostly fast-growing subtropical and tropical trees and shrubs in the subfamily Mimosoideae of the legume family, Fabaceae. The genus is pantropical, occurring in Asia, Africa, Madagascar, Central, South, and southern North America and Australia, but mostly...
  
   lebbeck
• Annona
  Annona
  Annona is a genus of flowering plants in the pawpaw/sugar apple family, Annonaceae. It is the second largest genus in the family after Guatteria, containing approximately 110 species of mostly neotropical and afrotropical trees and shrubs....
  
   glabra

The garden sustained heavy damages from Hurricane Wilma

Hurricane Wilma

Hurricane Wilma was the most intense tropical cyclone ever recorded in the Atlantic basin. Wilma was the twenty-second storm , thirteenth hurricane, sixth major hurricane, and fourth Category 5 hurricane of the record-breaking 2005 season...

in October 2005. Many trees were lost and damaged by heavy winds, rain, and by heavy equipment during the clean-up process. The Arboretum was closed for repairs for a period of five months.

The Arboretum is currently maintained by the Friends of the Deerfield Beach Arboretum which hosts a workday every first Saturday of the month.There are tourers every Friday at 10:00am and the first Saturday of every month at 10:00am.The Arboretum is currently open from dawn to dusk.

External links

• TreeZoo, web home of the Deerfield Beach Arboretum