Marie Selby Botanical Gardens
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The Christie Payne Mansion, home of the Museum of Botany and the Arts
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| Location | Sarasota, Florida |
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| Coordinates | 27°19′40″N 82°32′25″W / 27.32778°N 82.54028°WCoordinates: 27°19′40″N 82°32′25″W / 27.32778°N 82.54028°W |
| Architectural style | Colonial Revival |
| NRHP Reference # | 98001201 |
| Added to NRHP | September 25, 1998 |
The Marie Selby Botanical Gardens (15 acres, including 9 acres of display gardens) is the only botanical garden in the world dedicated to the display and study of epiphytes, especially orchids and bromeliads, and their canopy ecosystems, with a focus on botany, horticulture and environmental education. Ongoing research and exploration for tropical plants attracts worldwide attention of international scholars and plant enthusiasts. It is located on the grounds of the former home of Marie and William Selby (of the Texaco Oil Company) at 900 South Palm Avenue, in the heart of Sarasota, Florida, United States, and open to the public 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. every day but Christmas.
The Gardens feature the most diverse living and preserved collections of epiphytes in the world, and feature more than 20,000 living plants including 5,500 orchids, 3,500 bromeliads and 1,600 other plants.The living collection is accompanied by an herbarium, with dried and preserved specimens of tropical flora; the world's second largest spirit collection consisting of vials of mostly orchid flowers in preservative fluids; and a library. More than 150 expeditions to the tropics and subtropics have contributed to these collections. Selby Gardens' botanists have discovered or described more than 2,000 plant species previously unknown to science.
For the casual visitor, the Gardens maintain banyans, bamboo, live oaks, palms, mangroves, succulents, wildflowers, cycads, bromeliads, a butterfly garden, a fragrance garden, an edible garden and a koi pond, on a site bordering Sarasota Bay. The interactive Ann Goldstein Children's Rainforest Garden is designed to help children develop a lifelong appreciation for rainforest plants.
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