Flecker Botanical Gardens, Tropical botanical garden in Edge Hill, Australia

Flecker Botanical Gardens is a tropical botanical garden in Edge Hill with about 38 hectares of land featuring native Australian plant species. The site includes rare palms, gingers, orchids, bamboos, and tropical fruit trees arranged throughout pathways and cultivated areas.

In November 1886 about 71 acres west and south of Mount Islay were gazetted as a temporary recreation reserve, and the Cairns Municipal Council engaged botanist Eugene Fitzalan to lay out an ornamental garden. Fitzalan planted roses, hibiscus, orchids and local plants from the Mt Whitfield Range, cut a 9-foot-wide main path at his own expense in 1887, and ran the Edge Hill Nursery. The reserve was later expanded and named after naturalist Dr Hugo Flecker.

The gardens are also called Edge Hill Nursery and Fitzalan's Botanical Gardens, after Eugene Fitzalan, who ran a commercial nursery here and sold refreshments to visitors. He planted about 50 rose varieties, 11 hibiscus varieties, orchids, ferns and rain trees, and grafted oranges, lemons and mangoes for local residents.

The grounds are open daily during daylight hours and visitors can explore on foot along the network of pathways. Plan for a leisurely walk and bring water, as the tropical climate can be hot and the terrain varies in elevation throughout the gardens.

The gardens grow the Amorphophallus Titanum, a tropical plant with a single massive leaf that unfolds to several meters wide. This rare species draws visitors curious about witnessing one of nature's most unusual plants.