The Palmetum is a botanical garden on a hillside overlooking the Atlantic Ocean in Santa Cruz de Tenerife. It sits atop an artificial hill more than 100 feet tall on the site of an old landfill, which was closed in 1983. It is now a beautiful garden and a great example of how to reuse a brownfield site.
In the mid 1990s, the idea to build a botanical center on the old landfill formed. From 1997 through 2014, plants were cultivated, and the park was slowly built. The park was split into sections based on their geographical origin. Many of the plants gained maturity while the facility struggled with funding over that time. While they patiently awaited funding, over 400 species of palm trees were growing on the hill.
In 2010, the plan to open the park to the public began and signage, restrooms and a visitor center were built. Lights, paths, and squares were built to complete the project. Finally, in January 2014, Spain’s Prince Felipe and Princess Letizia inaugurated the site and the doors were opened to the public.
The Palmetum was part of a larger transformation of the waterfront in Santa Cruz de Tenerife. The dramatic Auditorio de Tenerife is an amazing example of modern architecture, with its striking, fluid, wave-like concrete design. Construction began in 1997, and it opened in 2003. The Parque Marítimo César Manrique, a waterpark that lies between the Auditorio and the Palmetum, was opened in 1995.
These construction projects filled in an area which also had some beautiful historic buildings, including the Casa de la Pólvora, a gunpowder warehouse built in the mid 1700s, and the Castillo de San Juan Bautista, a circular fortress surrounded by the ocean, from the 1600s. All of this makes walking along the recreational path on the Santa Cruz de Tenerife waterfront a beautiful experience.
When we showed up at the gates of the Palmetum, I didn’t know it was an old landfill. So much of the area around Santa Cruz de Tenerife has dramatic hills, that it seemed to be a natural formation. There was plenty of parking available in the lot in front of the Palmetum, so we just needed to pull in and walk up to the gift shop.
The gift shop itself isn’t terribly large; there were some tchotchkes and t-shirts, but most importantly, there was a bathroom and a gentleman there to collect our admission fees. For us non-residents, the admission fee was 6 euros each, which seemed like a fair price.
We left the gift shop and began to walk up a long, sloped path. On the left side was a short wall typical in Tenerife, built out of dark volcanic stones. As you might have guessed, the Palmetum is a botanical center that specializes in varieties of palm trees. While this may not seem as exciting to folks who live in Tenerife or other places where palm trees are plentiful, for us Midwesterners who spend an inordinate amount of time staring at corn, this was a nice change.
The space between the visitor center and the top of the hill is the area that is devoted to plants from Tenerife. Since Tenerife is somewhat dry, there is a combination of palm trees and cacti. While walking up the slope, we would occasionally hear a faint scurry of tiny lizards as they went about their daily activities. Since Tenerife is an isolated island, there are no native species of mammals, except for bats. Except for domesticated animals, lizards, bats, and birds are probably the only fauna you will see in Tenerife.
Once we got to the top of the hill, the landscape flattened out. The majority of the botanical garden is at the top of this hill. The park itself is laid out by regions. The first section that we came across was Hawaii, followed by Fiji, Madagascar, and North Caledonia.
These exhibits are on the ocean side of the garden. In addition to all these amazing plants, there are tremendous ocean views from the top of the hill. I found myself staring out at the blue ocean water from this elevated vantage point often.
As we followed along the edge facing the ocean, we walked into the Asia section. There, we came across a massive palm tree. I knew palm trees could get large, but this was an impressive size. It also demonstrated how different palm trees can be.
While the focus of this botanical garden is palm trees, there were also several unusual fruit trees and lots of flowers. There are also varieties of pine trees that I found to be unusual.
After walking around the park for a while, we stopped at a plaza that had a small food truck and grabbed some coffee, and then relaxed for a while. Nearby the plaza is a sign that helps identify the bird species that can be found at the park. We had a hard time seeing the birds, but they were definitely around because we heard them clearly.
The bird population at the Palmetum is a success story on its own. As the park has developed, the number and variety of birds have increased over time. The Canary Islands play a vital role in bird migratory routes, so the Palmetum provides a wonderful stopover for birds making that journey. A great resource for which birds can be found at the park is located here.
After our break, we walked into the Octogono. A semi-enclosed area that helps protect more delecate plants. It has some small ponds and waterfalls inside of it. Much of it is made out of the same dark, volcanic rock that can be found all around the island. The Octogono is beautiful and is a great place to take a selfie or two.
Following the Octogono, we walked around to the pond, where we saw one lone duck wandering around the far side of the pond. There is a small structure with a bench inside of it, which looks like it is designed to allow viewers to see the birds while making it difficult for the birds to see the people. Unfortunately, for us, there was just the one lone duck, but I imagine that it can be a great place to hang around for a while.
Following the pond, we walked back down the sloped walkway back to then entrance of the park. The experience at the Palmetum was great. It’s not a huge botanical center, but it is definitely large enough to have some great diversity. Overall, we spent around an hour and a half there. It turned out to be a nice relaxing walk with the opportunity to learn a little bit about the plants and animals from around the world. It was well worth the trip and I would highly recommend a stop if you are in Santa Cruz de Tenerife.
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