Gardens, Parks and Forests

The Jardim Botânico dos Flamengos in the city of Horta can be considered unique amongst its kind in the Azores being dedicated to scientific studies for the conservation cataloguing and propagation of botanical species.

Here there are all kinds of specialised gardens such as the one on the western side that contains exotic and native species of aromatic and medicinal plants the garden on the eastern side dedicated to the collection of plants from Macaronesia (those that are endemic to the Azores together with specimens from Madeira and the Canaries) and the one that contains exotic ornamental plants.

It is organised into small zones that reproduce the natural habitat of the various sets of plants: the vegetation that is characteristic of coastal areas and areas of low altitude; plants from mid to high-altitude areas; and in a ravine area species from the extremely humid Laurissilva (laurel-leaved) forest typical of mid to high-altitude areas.

The plants represented here belong almost exclusively to the vegetation of Macaronesia including 45 that are endemic to the Azores 6 that are common to the Azores and Madeira 5 that are common to Madeira and the Canary Islands and 2 that are common to Macaronesia as a whole.