Photo adjustments
Full frame retained; proportionally resized and converted to WebP. No retouching or changes to the photographed subject. Card displays may crop the view.
Explore the region
About Hunan Botanical Garden
Hunan Botanical Garden (湖南省植物园), formerly the Hunan Forest Botanical Garden (湖南省森林植物园), covers 120 hectares in Yuhua District (雨花区) in the south of Changsha (长沙), between Xiangfu Road (湘府路) to the north and the Guitang River (圭塘河) to the west.
The garden was established in 1985. In 1992 the site also gained the title Tianjiling National Forest Park (天际岭国家森林公园), and in 1994 it was also designated Hunan's provincial rescue and breeding centre for wild animals (湖南省野生动物救护繁殖中心); the present name dates from June 2021. It combines research, species conservation, science education and ecotourism. Its specialised gardens include collections of rare plants, roses, cherries, shade plants, medicinal plants, hydrangeas, climbers, peaches, wetland plants, plum blossom and azaleas.
The cherry garden grew from a gift. After Hunan and Japan's Shiga Prefecture (滋贺县) became friendship partners in 1983, Shiga presented 2,000 Somei-Yoshino cherry trees in 1985, and they were planted here while the garden was being set up. They remain the main trees in the core of the cherry garden, where the Hunan Cherry Blossom Festival has been held each March since 2006. The cherry collection now holds 20 species and more than 120 cultivars, and in 2021 it was approved as a national forest-tree germplasm bank.
The National Azalea Garden (国家杜鹃园) covers 450 mu (亩), about 30 hectares, and holds what the garden describes as China's only ex-situ germplasm bank for the genus Rhododendron, begun in 2007. More than 230 species and cultivars, over 100,000 plants in all, flower from early March into June. The 20-hectare rare plant garden, also started in 1985, conserves 176 wild species under national or Hunan provincial protection, among them the Class I protected Cathaya (银杉), dove tree (珙桐), dawn redwood (水杉) and ginkgo (银杏).
What to look for
- Cherry garden (樱花专类园), built around 2,000 Somei-Yoshino trees given by Shiga Prefecture in 1985
- National Azalea Garden (国家杜鹃园), more than 230 kinds of Rhododendron flowering from March to June
- Rare plant garden (珍稀植物园), with Cathaya, dove tree and dawn redwood
- Medicinal plant garden (药用植物专类园)
- Rose garden (月季•玫瑰园)
- Wetland plant garden (湿地植物园)
Location & getting there
Getting to Hunan Botanical Garden
- Search for 湖南省植物园 with 长沙市 and 雨花区.
Find Hunan Botanical Garden
湖南省植物园 · 雨花区
No reliable map pin yet: search by the Chinese name.
Sources & visit information
Written from the linked sources and checked sentence by sentence against quoted extracts by a separate reviewer on 2026-09-23. Opening hours, admission and access arrangements are not covered; confirm current visitor information with the site.
Some facts checked against Wikipedia contributors, "湖南省植物园" · CC BY-SA 4.0.