United States Botanic Garden

Photo: Farragutful, CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)

A stop on Washington DC National Mall Walking Tour, a free self-guided tour.

As you walk back to the Mall, the glass conservatory on your left is the United States Botanic Garden. Congress established it in 1820, making it one of the oldest continuously operating botanic gardens in North America. Its collections grew from plants brought back by the U.S. Exploring Expedition, led by Charles Wilkes, which sailed the Pacific from 1838 to 1842.

The present Conservatory opened in 1933. Inside, the Jungle room rises to a catwalk at canopy height, and other rooms hold desert plants, orchids, medicinal plants and plants of the Mediterranean.

Across Independence Avenue, Bartholdi Park is named for its cast-iron fountain by Frederic Auguste Bartholdi, the sculptor of the Statue of Liberty. The fountain was shown at the 1876 Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia before the government bought it and brought it here. West of the Conservatory, the National Garden, opened in 2006, has a rose garden, a butterfly garden and plants native to the Mid-Atlantic.

Admission is free. In December, the holiday show with model trains and buildings made of plants draws long lines.

More on Wikipedia: United States Botanic Garden · Charles Wilkes · Bartholdi Park

United States Botanic Garden

Stops on this tour