Botanical Gardens, Victoria

The Victoria Botanical Gardens were established in 1901 by Mr. Paul Evenor Rivalz Dupont, Director of Agricultural Services and Naturalist of Seychelles. Today, the Ministry of Environment is responsible for the gardens and has its headquarters within the grounds. The main objective of the gardens is to contribute towards the Seychelles' efforts in environmental education, plant conservation, landscape management, passive recreation, and eco-tourism.

For us, on such a hot, sticky day, it was nice to find a bit of respite in the shade of magnificent trees. It was lovely to see plants and flowers that we saw at the Eden Project in Cornwall a few weeks ago thriving in their natural environment!

A highlight was an impressive 40 foot tall Coco de Mer tree, which was planted by the Duke of Edinburgh as a sapling in 1956. I'm sure he would be impressed with how well it's done! 😀

The Coco de Mer tree (scientific name 'lodoicea') is only found naturally in the Seychelles. It generally grows to around 30 to 40 metres tall. The tallest on record, measured on the ground after felling, was 56.7 metres.  The leaves are fan-shaped, 7 to 10 metres long and 4.5 metres wide.  It is dioecious, meaning that it has separate male and female plants. The one planted by the Duke is female. There is a male standing nearby. The mature fruit is 40 to 50 centimetres in diameter and weighs 15 to 30 kilograms. It contains the largest seed in the plant kingdom. This seed is synonymous with the Seychelles. You see representations of it everywhere - on advertising hoardings, on packaging, and on countless souvenirs. If you want to take an actual seed home with you, you need a special licence - and it will cost you a huge amount of money!Read more