CYKASY
Cycads in the Lisbon University Botanic Garden
The Lisbon University Botanic Garden is one of the two cities main botanic gardens located in the beautiful Bairro Alto. It is certainly worth visiting. For an European, this is one of the few places in the EU where you can see old cycads growing outside and not in a greenhouse.
The garden is probably the most under-financed botanic garden we have seen in Europe, with a ruin of a “greenhouse” and a Latin American style entry booth welcoming the guests but the plants are old and beautiful. And who would need a greenhouse in such a hot country anyway?
Surprisingly Portugal used to be one of the colonial powers some time ago, nevertheless we could not see any cycads from its former colonies (Mozambique, Brazil and Angola). The second botanic graden to see in the city is Jardim Botanico Tropical in Belém.
See also: Cycads in Portugal - Cycads in Europe