Flamingo Gardens is a 60 acres (24.3 ha), not-for-profit wildlife sanctuary, aviary

Aviary

An aviary is a large enclosure for confining birds. Unlike cages, aviaries allow birds a larger living space where they can fly; hence, aviaries are also sometimes known as flight cages...

, 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 just west of Fort Lauderdale, Florida

Fort Lauderdale, Florida

Fort Lauderdale is a city in the U.S. state of Florida, on the Atlantic coast. It is the county seat of Broward County. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 165,521. It is a principal city of the South Florida metropolitan area, which was home to 5,564,635 people at the 2010...

 at 3750 South Flamingo Road, Davie, Florida

Davie, Florida

Davie is a town in Broward County, Florida, United States. The town's population was 91,992 at the 2010 census.- History :Davie was founded by Jake Tannebaum and Tamara Toussaint. The original name of the town was Zona. In 1909 R.P. Davie assisted then Governor Broward by draining the swamplands...

, USA

United States

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

. It is open to the public for a fee.

The grounds contain more than 3,000 species of tropical and subtropical plants, including orchids, fern

Fern

A fern is any one of a group of about 12,000 species of plants belonging to the botanical group known as Pteridophyta. Unlike mosses, they have xylem and phloem . They have stems, leaves, and roots like other vascular plants...

s, bromeliads, 200-year-old oak

Southern live oak

Quercus virginiana, also known as the southern live oak, is a normally evergreen oak tree native to the southeastern United States. Though many other species are loosely called live oak, the southern live oak is particularly iconic of the Old South....

s, and 300 plus species of 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...

s. A narrated tram ride leads through the site's tropical rainforest, native hammock, wetland areas and groves. The Tropical Plant House displays orchids, calathea

Calathea

Calathea is a genus of plants belonging to the family Marantaceae. There are several dozen species in this genus. Native to the tropical Americas, many of the species are popular as pot plants due to their decorative leaves and, in some species, colorful inflorescences. They are commonly called...

s, and other plants; the 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...

 contains one of the largest collection of non-indigenous Champion trees in the region, among the specimens include Pink Trumpet Tree

Tabebuia

Tabebuia is a neotropical genus of about 100 species in the tribe Tecomeae of the family Bignoniaceae. The species range from northern Mexico and southern Florida south to northern Argentina, including the Caribbean islands of Hispaniola and Cuba...

, Yellow Poinciana, Dynamite Tree

Sandbox Tree

Hura crepitans , the Sandbox tree, also known as Possumwood and Jabillo, is an evergreen tree of the spurge family , native to tropical regions of North and South America in Amazon Rainforest. It is recognized by the many dark, pointed spines and smooth brown bark...

, Indian Jujube

Ziziphus mauritiana

Ziziphus mauritiana, also known as Jujube, Chinee Apple, Indian plum, and permseret , is a tropical fruit tree species belonging to the family Rhamnaceae....

, Bread Nut Tree

Brosimum alicastrum

Brosimum alicastrum, the breadnut or Maya nut, is a Brosimum tree species under the Moraceae family of flowering plants, whose other genera include fig and mulberries The plant is known by a range of names in indigenous Mesoamerican and other languages, including but not limited to: ramon,ojoche,...

, Wampi

Clausena lansium

Clausena lansium, also known as a wampee , is a species of strongly scented evergreen trees 3-8 m tall, in the family Rutaceae, native to southeast Asia....

, and White Sapote

White sapote

White sapote, Casimiroa edulis, also known as cochitzapotl in the Nahuatl language is a species of tropical fruiting tree in the family Rutaceae, native to eastern Mexico and Central America south to Costa Rica....

 among others with understorey plantings and a waterfall; and the Xeriscape Garden demonstrates low maintenance, minimally-watered gardening.

Fauna include Otters, Alligator

American Alligator

The American alligator , sometimes referred to colloquially as a gator, is a reptile endemic only to the Southeastern United States. It is one of the two living species of alligator, in the genus Alligator, within the family Alligatoridae...

s, Bobcat

Bobcat

The bobcat is a North American mammal of the cat family Felidae, appearing during the Irvingtonian stage of around 1.8 million years ago . With twelve recognized subspecies, it ranges from southern Canada to northern Mexico, including most of the continental United States...

s, Florida Panther

Florida Panther

The Florida panther is an endangered subspecies of cougar that lives in forests and swamps of southern Florida in the United States. Its current taxonomic status is unresolved, but recent genetic research alone does not alter the legal conservation status...

s, Tortoises, fresh water turtle

Turtle

Turtles are reptiles of the order Testudines , characterised by a special bony or cartilaginous shell developed from their ribs that acts as a shield...

s, Geese, Swans

Mute Swan

The Mute Swan is a species of swan, and thus a member of the duck, goose and swan family Anatidae. It is native to much of Europe and Asia, and the far north of Africa. It is also an introduced species in North America, Australasia and southern Africa. The name 'mute' derives from it being less...

, Sandhill Crane

Sandhill Crane

The Sandhill Crane is a large crane of North America and extreme northeastern Siberia. The common name of this bird references habitat like that at the Platte River, on the edge of Nebraska's Sandhills in the American Midwest...

s, blue-beaked duck

Duck

Duck is the common name for a large number of species in the Anatidae family of birds, which also includes swans and geese. The ducks are divided among several subfamilies in the Anatidae family; they do not represent a monophyletic group but a form taxon, since swans and geese are not considered...

s, Flamingos, Bald Eagle

Bald Eagle

The Bald Eagle is a bird of prey found in North America. It is the national bird and symbol of the United States of America. This sea eagle has two known sub-species and forms a species pair with the White-tailed Eagle...

s, golden eagle

Golden Eagle

The Golden Eagle is one of the best known birds of prey in the Northern Hemisphere. Like all eagles, it belongs to the family Accipitridae. Once widespread across the Holarctic, it has disappeared from many of the more heavily populated areas...

s, owl

Owl

Owls are a group of birds that belong to the order Strigiformes, constituting 200 bird of prey species. Most are solitary and nocturnal, with some exceptions . Owls hunt mostly small mammals, insects, and other birds, although a few species specialize in hunting fish...

s, peacocks, macaw

Macaw

Macaws are small to large, often colourful New World parrots. Of the many different Psittacidae genera, six are classified as macaws: Ara, Anodorhynchus, Cyanopsitta, Primolius, Orthopsittaca, and Diopsittaca...

s, and iguana

Green Iguana

The Green Iguana or Common Iguana is a large, arboreal herbivorous species of lizard of the genus Iguana native to Central and South America...

s. The 25000 square feet (2,322.6 m²) Everglades

Everglades

The Everglades are subtropical wetlands in the southern portion of the U.S. state of Florida, comprising the southern half of a large watershed. The system begins near Orlando with the Kissimmee River, which discharges into the vast but shallow Lake Okeechobee...

 aviary houses one of the largest collection of wading birds in the United States. Species include, White Pelican

American White Pelican

The American White Pelican is a large aquatic bird from the order Pelecaniformes. It breeds in interior North America, moving south and to the coasts, as far as Central America, in winter....

s, Roseate Spoonbill

Roseate Spoonbill

The Roseate Spoonbill, Platalea ajaja, is a gregarious wading bird of the ibis and spoonbill family, Threskiornithidae...

s, American White Ibis

American White Ibis

The American White Ibis is a species of wading bird in the ibis family Threskiornithidae. It occurs from the mid-Atlantic and Gulf coast of the United States south through most of the New World tropics...

, Wood Stork

Wood Stork

The Wood Stork is a large American wading bird in the stork family Ciconiidae. It was formerly called the "Wood Ibis", though it is not really an ibis.-Appearance:...

s, Brown Pelican

Brown Pelican

The Brown Pelican is the smallest of the eight species of pelican, although it is a large bird in nearly every other regard. It is in length, weighs from and has a wingspan from .-Range and habits:...

s, Great Blue Heron

Great Blue Heron

The Great Blue Heron is a large wading bird in the heron family Ardeidae, common near the shores of open water and in wetlands over most of North and Central America as well as the West Indies and the Galápagos Islands. It is a rare vagrant to Europe, with records from Spain, the Azores and England...

s, Great Egret

Great Egret

The Great Egret , also known as the Great White Egret or Common Egret, White Heron, or Great White Heron, is a large, widely-distributed egret. Distributed across most of the tropical and warmer temperate regions of the world, in southern Europe it is rather localized...

s, Snowy Egret

Snowy Egret

The Snowy Egret is a small white heron. It is the American counterpart to the very similar Old World Little Egret, which has established a foothold in the Bahamas....

s, Anhinga

Anhinga

The Anhinga , sometimes called Snakebird, Darter, American Darter, or Water Turkey, is a water bird of the warmer parts of the Americas. The word "anhinga" comes from the Brazilian Tupi language and means devil bird or snake bird.It is a cormorant-like bird with an average body length of , a...

s, Double-crested Cormorant

Double-crested Cormorant

The Double-crested Cormorant is a member of the cormorant family of seabirds. It occurs along inland waterways as well as in coastal areas, and is widely distributed across North America, from the Aleutian Islands in Alaska down to Florida and Mexico...

s, Tricolored Heron

Tricolored Heron

The Tricolored Heron formerly known in North America as the Louisiana Heron, is a small heron. It is a resident breeder from the Gulf states of the USA and northern Mexico south through Central America and the Caribbean to central Brazil and Peru...

s, Night Heron

Black-crowned Night Heron

The Black-crowned Night Heron commonly abbreviated to just Night Heron in Eurasia, is a medium-sized heron found throughout a large part of the world, except in the coldest regions and Australasia .-Description:Adults are...

s and seagulls. The aviary exhibits five native Florida ecosystems; Coastal prairie

Coastal prairie

Coastal prairie may refer to either:* The California coastal prairie, a plant community found along the coasts of California and Oregon* The Western Gulf coastal grasslands of Louisiana, Texas, and Tamaulipas...

, mangrove swamp, cypress forest

Cypress forest

A Cypress forest is a western USA plant association typically dominated by one or more cypress species. Example species comprising the canopy include Cupressus macrocarpa. In some cases these forests have been severely damaged by goats, cattle and other grazing animals...

, sub-tropical hardwood hammock

South Florida rocklands

The South Florida rocklands ecoregion, in the Tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests Biome, occurring in southern Florida and the Florida Keys in the United States, where they would naturally cover an area of . These forests form on limestone outcroppings with very thin soil; the higher...

, and sawgrass prairie

Everglades

The Everglades are subtropical wetlands in the southern portion of the U.S. state of Florida, comprising the southern half of a large watershed. The system begins near Orlando with the Kissimmee River, which discharges into the vast but shallow Lake Okeechobee...

.

The Gardens were originally the property of Floyd L. and Jane Wray, who in 1933 built a home and citrus grove on what was then the edge of the Everglades, where they started a botanical collection of tropical and subtropical 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 shrubs. The Wray Home is now a museum illustrating a country home in the early 1930s. Guided tours are provided daily.

Pioneer City

Pioneer City

Pioneer City was an Old West theme park located across the street from Flamingo Gardens in Davie, Florida.The park was opened on Memorial Day weekend 1966 by photography studio magnate Myron M. "Mike" Weiss, Sr...

, a western theme park, was built in the 1960s across the street from Flamingo Gardens. It lasted only a few years.

External links

• Official Website
• Article about the gardens
• Article about the Walking Map of the gardens