Two large acacia trees, one on each side of the gate, welcome visitors to the Garden. One is an Acacia caven, native to central Chile, and the other is an Acacia aroma, originating from Central America. Eugeni Sierra, a famous Catalan biologist and illustrator, planted the first tree in 1974 from seeds he sourced in Chile.
The entrance area is the largest space in the garden and it offers a diverse collection of notable plants. The right side features a spectacular group of eight species of cycads of varying heights and ages, and a sorrel plant from the Canary Islands. An Araucaria angustifolia among the cycads evokes remote and ancient landscapes. An olive standing alongside two junipers stands out here because it is unusually slender.
Sot de l'Estany - east side
The path on the right side descends among Mediterranean vegetation: buckthorn, Balearic box, mastics, junipers and terebinth, with pines and oaks in the tree stratum. The slopes are covered in a coarse spiky grass known as reed grass. In Catalonia, this plant is found in abundance only in the Garraf area, but it is common in the Balearic Islands and northern Africa. At the first bend there is a large yellow jasmine vine growing under a small group of pine trees on the slope. The Garden narrows as it descends. At the foot of the path, a group of twisted oaks of about one hundred years old stretch their branches away from the stone wall in search of light. The ambience becomes shady and cool, giving the impression of a central European landscape. In this part of the garden the unique nature of the quarry and the steep relief intensifies the effect of isolation, and the light filtering through the branches of the trees adds the finishing touch to the picturesque setting that the garden´s designers set out to achieve over seventy years ago. A perennial stream flows down cascades feeding a central pond. The murmur of the water under the canopy of the trees creates a soothing atmosphere that permeates every corner. The return path begins at the steps a little further on beside the brook. At the foot of the steps there is a group of ferns, including several umbelliferae species such as hemlock water dropwort (Oenanthe crocata) and horsetail (Equisetum arvense), typical of wet places.
A little further up, the lush vegetation recalls primitive laurel forests and shady coastal evergreen woodland. A yew tree with a well-formed crown stands out nearby, and looking back, the eye is drawn to the shiny leaves of the Hedychium gardnerianum, a ginger lily native to New Zealand, completely acclimatized to the garden's shady conditions.
Just past the waterfall, the walkway continues through a grove of fan palms and a stand of Atlas cedars. Mosses and liverworts grow on the ground, on the brick path. Before going up the next group of steps, a little path on the left leads to a particularly interesting group of small plants: from Lysimachia minoricensis (Menorca Loosestrife), a native of Menorca, extinct in its natural habitat, to Teline osmariensis, a very rare broom from northern Morocco. In winter and early spring, the ground is covered in a blanket of sweet violets, including Viola catalonica, with its white flowers.A short distance on stand a large hazel tree and a beech. Very close by, a massive vine creeps along the ground, looking for a tree to climb. Since Font i Quer planted this creeper in the 1930s it has caused three large pine trees to fall. It is a male specimen of a very primitive genus of lianas (Ephedra altissima) and it clearly found the Historic Botanic Garden to be an ideal habitat. To the right there is a Hop-hornbeam, whose leaves are slightly reminiscent of those of the two hackberry trees that stand nearby.
Sot de la Masia - west side
Walking through the tunnel to the left at the entrance area to the Historic Botanic Garden we come to the Sot de la Masia. The Cattle Farmers' Association built the house as a model farm for the Universal Exposition in 1929. The garden design project, conceived by Font i Quer and W. Rothmaler in 1935, envisaged converting the farmhouse into a research centre for studies in gardening, seed germination, plant propagation and comparative cultivations. It now runs an activities programme focusing on plants that are useful to humans, plants that humans have cultivated since the Neolithic era. It has also set up an organic vegetable garden where visitors can see how organic gardening works, learn about the type of seeds traditional species produce, and observe how these plants grow. The Sot de la Masia is bowl-shaped and considerably wider than the Sot de l'Estany. The whole garden enjoys full sun and humidity is lower than in the Sot de l'Estany. The plants that grow here are more Mediterranean species. Visitors can take the main path to the farmhouse at the lower end of the garden, or branch off onto the narrower pathways that run along the stone-walled terraces.
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The other side of the path consists of terraced gardens. The wall that encloses the upper part is covered by a huge spreading mass of dark pink bougainvillea. A date plum stands on the first terrace. On either side of the first steps, two old boxwood trees open the way towards a large camphor tree (Camphorosma monspeliaca). On the right, the central terrace is supported by a magnificent female specimen of the Ginkgo biloba tree, which produces edible seeds.
Behind the farmhouse stand an English oak and a cork oak. The slopes on the right feature sisal plants, known for their tough stiff fibres that have long been used in twine and rope-making. A grove of palm trees is prominent here, and Mexican Fan palms (Washingtonia filifera) catch the eye with their bright green, fan-shaped leaves.
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Source : Garden web site Brochure
