Botanical Garden Tree Route

About Botanical Garden Tree Route

Located in the Free State National Botanical Garden, the Botanical Garden Tree Route is a self-guided, 1km walk that features 43 indigenous trees.

It comes with an informational booklet (at a small cost) and there are numbered markers on the route that mark significant trees. The walk is accessible by wheelchair, and the park intends adding braille signage. There is a further part to the walk that moves beyond the more cultivated section of the garden, up in the koppie, where the trees are found in a more natural environment.

The Tree Route begins in the garden at one of the oldest trees in the garden, planted in 1946, an Ana tree or Faidherbia albida. You can do the walk without the booklet, learning the trees names, but with the book, sponsored by the University of the Free State's Botany Department and the Botanical Society, you will learn so much more about the trees and their role in nature.

The Tree Route serves as a wonderful educational tool for visiting school groups and for local lovers of plants. It joins two other walking trails in the garden – the Motshetshe and Garden View trails. Each of these average 2 km and give one wonderful views over the garden.

The Motshetshe Trail is named for the Kiepersol or Cabbage tree, many of which are found on the trail. Along the route are several make-shift collections of stones and pot fragments – all that remain of kraals that are typical of the Iron Age living sites found throughout the Free State.