Rio Grande Botanic Garden, Botanical garden near Rio Grande in Albuquerque, United States.
The Rio Grande Botanic Garden is a botanical garden in Albuquerque, New Mexico, featuring plants from the American Southwest and Mediterranean regions. A large glass conservatory sits at the center of the grounds, surrounded by several outdoor themed sections with distinct plant collections.
The garden opened in the 1990s as part of a broader effort to develop the BioPark along the Rio Grande in Albuquerque. The conservatory was planned from the start as a central feature, designed to display plants from warmer and drier climates within New Mexico.
Summer concerts bring people together on the open grounds, turning the garden into a gathering place for the local community. The sections devoted to Southwestern plants give visitors a clear sense of what the natural landscape around Albuquerque actually looks like.
The garden is part of the Albuquerque BioPark, which also includes a zoo and an aquarium, so visitors can combine several attractions in one outing. The outdoor sections can get very warm in summer, so going in the morning makes the visit more comfortable.
Within the grounds there is a section called the BUGarium, devoted entirely to insects and arthropods and holding one of the largest collections of its kind in the country. This area is especially popular with children and shows creatures that rarely appear in a standard zoo.
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