National Botanic Garden, Botanical garden in Alexandra Park, Harare, Zimbabwe

The National Botanic Garden is a large facility in Harare featuring distinct ecological zones and regional habitats. Visitors find desert plants, wetland areas, and forest sections all situated alongside one another.

The site was laid out in 1902 as a recreation area. In 1962 it became the National Botanic Gardens under Hiram Wild, then head of the Southern Rhodesian Government Herbarium. Wild appointed Swiss botanist Tom Muller as first curator in 1961 or 1962. The herbarium moved into custom-built premises in the gardens around 1967, when Bob Drummond was in charge after Wild left for a university chair in plant taxonomy.

The garden's plantings are grouped by genus and region rather than by local use: a Combretaceae collection with rare and endangered species, stands of Acacia, Ficus, Brachystegia and Commiphora, and a Desert House holding about 240 species from arid parts of South America, India and Australia. The herbarium, registered under the code SRGH, keeps the dried specimens behind this work.

The garden lies about 4 km north of Harare city centre in Alexandra Park, at 17°48′S 31°03′E, and is open daily with no entrance fee. Its roughly 7 km² hold the Desert House and the herbarium, so plan a route before setting out. The National Herbarium of Zimbabwe (SRGH) is on the grounds.

The garden collects and preserves plant specimens with information on botanical diversity across southern Africa. This scientific collection forms the foundation for current research on threatened plant species in the region.