SSR Botanical Garden of Curepipe

Curepipe, Mauritius, Mauritius

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The SSR Botanical Garden of Curepipe, also called Curepipe Botanic Gardens, is the second largest botanical garden in Mauritius, located in Route des Jardins about 2 kilometers west of Curepipe town center, covering roughly 27 acres.

Established in 1870, the garden was initially created to cultivate plant varieties that could not acclimatize in the warmer coastal regions of the island, taking advantage of Curepipe's marginally cooler climate. The garden features a relatively informal layout with a river, lake, and diverse plant collections including exotic ornamentals like Rhododendrons, Camphors, and exotic fruit trees that were introduced to Mauritius, and it now also houses a small but growing collection of the rarest and most endangered endemic plants of Mauritius.

Its most famous attraction is the world's rarest palm tree, the unique specimen of Hyophorbe amaricaulis, making it significant for botanical conservation. In the mid-1980s, the garden was named "Sir Seewoosagar Botanical Garden" after Seewoosagur Ramgoolam, Mauritius's first post-independence prime minister, honoring his political legacy. The garden offers free entrance to all visitors, is open from 6:00 AM to 6:00 PM, and has its main entrance on Botanical Garden Street at Les Casernes with a secondary entrance at Camp-Caval, making it an accessible and serene green space for nature lovers and botanical researchers.