Heathcote Botanical Gardens
Encyclopedia
The Heathcote Botanical Gardens 3.5 acres (1.4 hectares) are subtropical botanical garden
s located at 210 Savannah Road, Fort Pierce, Florida
, USA
.
The site began as the commercial nursery of landscape architect, Molly Crimmons, and her husband, Jim. The Gardens were established in 1985 when the site was purchased by local citizens with contributions from the City of Fort Pierce, St. Lucie County, the State of Florida and Friends of Heathcote Botanical Gardens. They currently include a Japanese garden
, Reflection Garden, Herb
Garden, Rainforest
Display, Native Plants Garden, and a Palm
and Cycad
Walk. Bonsai
collections range from a 25 year-old bougainvillea
to assorted Ficus
species.
Its plants include: bamboo
, a banyan
tree, bromeliads, Clerodendrum
s, Clusia
rosea, Coccoloba
uvifera, Codiaeum
sp., croton
s, Encephalartos
gratus, orchids, Pandanus
utilis, Petrea
volubilis, philodendron
s, pineapple
, Podocarpus
gracilior, Tillandsia
s, and Zamia
pumila.
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...
s located at 210 Savannah Road, Fort Pierce, Florida
Fort Pierce, Florida
Fort Pierce, also spelled Ft. Pierce, is a city in St. Lucie County, Florida, USA. It is known as The Sunrise City. The population was 37,959 at the 2004 census. As of 2008, the population recorded by the U.S. Census Bureau is 41,000. It is the county seat of St. Lucie County.Fort Pierce is part...
, USA
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
.
The site began as the commercial nursery of landscape architect, Molly Crimmons, and her husband, Jim. The Gardens were established in 1985 when the site was purchased by local citizens with contributions from the City of Fort Pierce, St. Lucie County, the State of Florida and Friends of Heathcote Botanical Gardens. They currently include a Japanese garden
Japanese garden
, that is, gardens in traditional Japanese style, can be found at private homes, in neighborhood or city parks, and at historical landmarks such as Buddhist temples, Shinto shrines and old castles....
, Reflection Garden, 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, Rainforest
Rainforest
Rainforests are forests characterized by high rainfall, with definitions based on a minimum normal annual rainfall of 1750-2000 mm...
Display, Native Plants Garden, and a 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...
and Cycad
Cycad
Cycads are seed plants typically characterized by a stout and woody trunk with a crown of large, hard and stiff, evergreen leaves. They usually have pinnate leaves. The individual plants are either all male or all female . Cycads vary in size from having a trunk that is only a few centimeters...
Walk. Bonsai
Bonsai
is a Japanese art form using miniature trees grown in containers. Similar practices exist in other cultures, including the Chinese tradition of penjing from which the art originated, and the miniature living landscapes of Vietnamese hòn non bộ...
collections range from a 25 year-old bougainvillea
Bougainvillea
Bougainvillea is a genus of flowering plants native to South America from Brazil west to Peru and south to southern Argentina . Different authors accept between four and 18 species in the genus...
to assorted Ficus
Ficus
Ficus is a genus of about 850 species of woody trees, shrubs, vines, epiphytes, and hemiepiphyte in the family Moraceae. Collectively known as fig trees or figs, they are native throughout the tropics with a few species extending into the semi-warm temperate zone. The Common Fig Ficus is a genus of...
species.
Its plants 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....
, a banyan
Banyan
A banyan is a fig that starts its life as an epiphyte when its seeds germinate in the cracks and crevices on a host tree...
tree, bromeliads, Clerodendrum
Clerodendrum
Clerodendrum is a genus of flowering plants in the family Lamiaceae. Its common names include glorybower, bagflower and bleeding-heart...
s, Clusia
Clusia
Clusia is the type genus of the family Clusiaceae. Comprising 140-150 species, it is native to tropical and subtropical America. Its species are shrubs, vines and small to medium-size trees up to 20 m tall, with evergreen foliage...
rosea, Coccoloba
Coccoloba
Coccoloba is a genus of about 120–150 species of flowering plants in the family Polygonaceae. The genus is native to tropical and subtropical regions of the Americas, in South America, the Caribbean and Central America, with two species extending into Florida.The species are shrubs and trees,...
uvifera, Codiaeum
Codiaeum
Codiaeum is a genus of plants under the family Euphorbiaceae. It comprises about 16 species, found from Malesia to the Pacific. They are shrubs with leathery leaves and often confused with the genus Croton...
sp., croton
Croton (genus)
Croton is an extensive flowering plant genus in the spurge family, Euphorbiaceae, established by Carl Linnaeus in 1737. The plants of this genus were described and introduced to Europeans by Georg Eberhard Rumphius. The common names for this genus are rushfoil and croton, but the latter also...
s, Encephalartos
Encephalartos
Encephalartos is a genus of cycad native to Africa. Several species of Encephalartos are commonly referred to as bread palms, bread tree or Kaffir bread since a bread-like starchy food can be prepared from the centre of the stem. All the species of Encephalartos are endangered...
gratus, orchids, Pandanus
Pandanus
Pandanus is a genus of monocots with about 600 known species. They are numerous palmlike dioecious trees and shrubs native of the Old World tropics and subtropics. They are classified in the order Pandanales, family Pandanaceae.-Overview:...
utilis, Petrea
Petrea
Petrea is a genus of evergreen flowering vines native to Mexico and Central America. They have rough-textured leaves, hence the common name sandpaper vine. It looks somewhat similar to a tropical Wisteria....
volubilis, philodendron
Philodendron
Philodendron is a large genus of flowering plants in the Araceae family, consisting of close to 900 or more species according to TROPICOS . Other sources quote different numbers of species. According to S.J. Mayo there are about 350-400 formally recognized species whereas according to Croat there...
s, pineapple
Pineapple
Pineapple is the common name for a tropical plant and its edible fruit, which is actually a multiple fruit consisting of coalesced berries. It was given the name pineapple due to its resemblance to a pine cone. The pineapple is by far the most economically important plant in the Bromeliaceae...
, Podocarpus
Podocarpus
Podocarpus is a genus of conifers, the most numerous and widely distributed of the podocarp family Podocarpaceae. The 105 species of Podocarpus are evergreen shrubs or trees from 1-25 m in height...
gracilior, Tillandsia
Tillandsia
Tillandsia is a genus of around 540 species in the Bromeliad family , found in the forests, mountains, and deserts, of Central and South America, and Mexico and the southern United States in North America....
s, and Zamia
Zamia
Zamia is a genus of cycad of the family Zamiaceae, containing around 50 species, native to North, Central and South America. Species occur as far north as Georgia in the United States to as far south as Bolivia Zamia is a genus of cycad of the family Zamiaceae, containing around 50 species, native...
pumila.