Guiana Botanical Garden

French Guiana

The Guiana Botanical Garden, located between Cayenne and Kourou in French Guiana, spans three hectares and showcases an impressive diversity of over 4,500 plant taxa, including more than 750 species of orchids. Established in October 2010, the garden features biotopes such as savanna, high forest, and swamp forest, providing a unique environment for native flora. Visitors can enjoy a linear trail over one kilometer that leads through various plant collections, including orchids, bromeliads, aroids, palms, heliconias, carnivorous plants, and fruit trees. The garden also hosts a laboratory for in vitro culture to conserve rare and endangered species and a herbarium collaboration with the French Guiana IRD herbarium. The Maison de la Vanille, inaugurated in 2016 at the garden's entrance, offers visitors insight into vanilla orchids, their cultivation, and aromatic products derived from them. The garden is home to free-roaming wildlife such as birds, monkeys, and occasionally caimans, enriching the visitor experience with live fauna. Its conservation efforts include ex situ cultivation to aid species preservation and potential reintroduction into degraded natural habitats. The garden thus serves as both a peaceful recreational site and a vital center for botanical research and conservation in the equatorial Amazonian environment of French Guiana.