Palmetum of Santa Cruz de Tenerife

The Palmetum of Santa Cruz de Tenerife is a botanical garden of 120.000 m² specialized in palms (Arecaceae) . It is located in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain. The park is divided in "biogeographical sections" and includes a large system of waterfalls, streams and ponds, an ethnographical museum dedicated to palms, and a display shade house. The project was started in 1995 with funding from the European Union and the city of Santa Cruz and it was paralysed for lack of funding in the 2000 and only opened to the public in 2014. A large, valuable palm collection above 400 species is still maintained and improved while it waits for further developments. It is the theme park with the largest collection of palm trees in Europe.

The Palmetum is located in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, capital city of the Western Canary Islands, in the district of Cabo Llanos, in the coastal area named Parque Marítimo César Manrique. It is a hill known as El Lazareto, a former landfill of the city, overlooking the ocean. Average annual temperature is 21 °C and the absolute minimum temperature registered 13 °C.

The old landfill was shut in 1983. The creation of the garden was started with funding from the European Union and the City of Santa Cruz de Tenerife. The project was started in 1995, under the botanical direction of the Agronomist Manuel Caballero Ruano and the biologist Carlo Morici. The landscape designer Carlos Simón directed the construction of various lakes and waterfalls and the plantation of the earliest gardens in 1996-1999. The development of the project was suddenly paralysed in 2000 for lack of funding. Since then it was kept with basic maintenance until 2006. During 2007 and 2008 some major works were performed in the park in order to push it further. The whole watering system was replaced and the unfinished southern slopes were landscaped and planted. Living collections have been improved and ordered. New geographical sections have been started for Borneo and Philippines and New Guinea. The garden is still not open to the public. It can be visited by appointment only through the City of Santa Cruz de Tenerife. A public foundation named Fundación Canaria del Jardín Botánico del Palmetum de Santa Cruz is expected to manage the garden in the future.

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