Palmetum (Botanical Garden), Santa Cruz de Tenerife (must see)

The Palmetum of Santa Cruz de Tenerife is a botanical garden of 120.000 m² specialized in palms (Arecaceae). It is an artificial hill, with views of the ocean. The gardens include a large system of waterfalls, streams and ponds, a museum dedicated to palms, and a display shade house. The project was started in 1995 on a former landfill and only opened to the public in 2014.

The valuable palm collection gathers about 600 species of palms and it is focused on the ones native to world islands. Trees and shrubs of other plant families are also displayed, organised in "biogeographical sections". All gardens are maintained with no pesticides and no fertilizers, different species of wild birds are easily seen in the palmetum.

As of 2016, the plant collection includes at least 1853 plant taxa, with focus on island floras. 420 plant taxa are in the IUCN red list: 73 are critically endangered and 2 extinct in the wild.

The palm collection has 573 taxa. 163 are represented by at least one adult. 192 taxa are in the IUCN red list and 38 of them are critically endangered; 42 "IUCN palms" reached the adult stage.

Other well-represented families are Amaryllidaceae, Asparagaceae, Apocynaceae, Bromeliaceae, Fabaceae, Malvaceae and Moraceae.

The collection focuses on palms from islands and the Caribbean species are the most represented. The collection of Thrinax, Coccothrinax and Hemithrinax is one of the most complete in the world, as it proceeds from numerous field expeditions and collaborations with botanical gardens in the Caribbean, especially with La Habana, Cienfuegos and Las Tunas in Cuba, the Montgomery Botanical Center in Miami and the Jardín Botánico Nacional de Santo Domingo.

Some taxa are grown in sufficient number to allow ex situ seed production of IUCN species. An outstanding case is Coccothrinax borhidiana, which is a slow and critically endangered species, represented in the palmetum by 17 specimens germinated in 1996, now fruiting in the Caribbean section.