Location of National Botanical Gardens
The NBGs are situated in different parts of the country, ranging from predominantly winter-rainfall mediterranean climates (Kirstenbosch, Hantam and Harold Porter NBGs) to semi-arid climates (the Karoo Desert NBG, situated in Worcester, with an annual rainfall of 250 mm, is the only truly succulent garden on the African continent as well as in the southern hemisphere) and from summer rainfall subtropical to tropical climates (Lowveld and KwaZulu-Natal NBG) to South Africa’s interior plateau areas that can receive frost during the dry, cold winter months between May and August (Free State, Pretoria and Walter Sisulu NBGs). This range of climatic conditions means that different gardens are able to grow plants that might not be grown so successfully in other gardens without artificial structures having to be built.
The national botanical gardens include natural vegetation representative of six of southern Africa's seven biome units, namely forest, fynbos, grassland, savanna, Nama Karoo and Succulent Karoo. The only biome not represented is the Desert Biome, represented in Namibia almost exclusively by the Namib Desert. Each of the gardens’ natural areas includes an interpreted self-guided hiking/walking trail.