If you have a chance to travel south of the Silicon Valley and are interested in Mediterranean climate vegetation, the University of California Santa Cruz Arboretum is a good stop to make.
Founded in 1964, this 135-acre arboretum is divided into different gardens, each representing flora from a region that shares a Mediterranean-like climate with California. These regions are: Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and, of course, California itself. There is also a butterfly garden, a succulent garden as well as both a eucalyptus grove and a redwood grove. Outside of the immediate grounds of the arboretum are further gardens such as the World Conifers Collection and the California Conservation Garden.
I made my first ever visit to the arboretum on a mild day in late September with overcast skies. Visits to the arboretum are self-guided with dirt and concrete pathways winding through the more than 300 plant families representing Mediterranean climates in those countries. Much of the pathways are fairly flat so this is an easy walk for most people of all ages and physical capabilities.
There are pay boxes for depositing the $10 admission for adults (there is reduced pricing for seniors and kids. UC affiliates can enter for free). There is also a QR code if you don’t have case and want to pay online.
A favored birding locale
The botanical garden at UC Santa Cruz is also a favorite birding spot. The vast among of plants offering nectar and seeds make this a hotspot for a variety of native California bird species. On my visit plenty of Anna’s hummingbirds, dark-eyed juncos, spotted towhees, scrub jays, American robins, Bewick’s wrens, and American crows could be heard and seen among the plants during my visit.
AustraliaN Garden
I started with visiting The Australian Garden which is the largest plant collection of the arboretum – over 2,000 species from Australia (out of the 20,000 total native species on the continent) can be found at the arboretum. The tallest trees in The Australian Garden are the mature eucalyptus trees. These towering trees, with their peeling bark and aromatic leaves, dominate much of the garden.
In addition to the iconic eucalyptus trees Australia is known for, other flora such as banksias, grevilleas, and acacias can be found in this garden. Grevilleas, with their spider-like flowers, are particularly attractive to hummingbirds, which can often be seen darting between their bright red and pink blooms.
Acacias, commonly known as wattles in Australia, feature small, fluffy yellow flowers that appear in clusters. Anna’s hummingbirds, in particular, are frequent visitors, drawn to the nectar-rich flowers of grevilleas and banksias.
Dr. Ball’s Redwood Grove
Straddling the northern section of the Australia Garden is a grove of coastal redwoods. Dr. Ball’s Redwood Grove is named after Ernest Ball, a renowned botanist with UC Irvine who spent the latter years of his life researching cloning redwood trees in affiliation with UC Santa Cruz.
Researchers at Dr. Ball’s “Redwood Institute” on the UCSC campus aimed to develop genetically superior coast redwood trees with traits like rapid growth, branch-free trunks, and heat and drought tolerance. Today, hundreds of thousands of these redwoods are reforesting areas in Humboldt and Del Norte Counties, with some also growing at the UCSC Arboretum and UC Irvine’s Ernest A. Ball Redwood Grove.
New Zealand Garden
Across the visitor parking lot from the Australia Garden lies the New Zealand Garden. Art installations can be found at the entrances to this garden. The most prominent one features carved wooden figures entitled Sun Catchers by John Hylton. Hylton explained that his exhibition was inspired by limestones he found at the gardens that reminded him of ancient solar calendars. The wooden carved figures are spaced around the limestones and are faced to line up with the two equinoxes and one of the solstices.
Electric Pink plants (Cordyline australis) provide the only pop of color this time of year in the New Zealand Garden. Looking like they belong in a Dr. Seuss book, these thin stemmed plants sprout brilliantly pink leaves.
South African Garden
Where there were other sections at the arboretum, the last garden I visited was the South African Garden. There is a dedicated section just for succulents.
Also on display are Amaryllis belladonna, poking up from the dried grasses with brilliant fuchsia colored blooms. These ornamental flowers have become naturalized in several countries around the world as well as in the state of California.
On site is also a small nursery and gift shop where visitors can purchase select plants featured in the gardens. As I browsed through the California native plant selection, an Anna’s hummingbird perched on a wire nearby.
