The Redwood Grove – San Francisco Botanical Garden, Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, California

Among the many beautiful spaces within San Francisco Botanical Garden, the Redwood Grove is consistently cited as a favorite among visitors who are surprised to find that they don’t have to leave the City to see redwood trees. This century-old grove is full of the fog-loving towering giants known as Coast Redwoods or Sequoia sempervirens. These trees are the tallest living things on Earth and among the most well-adapted to their growing conditions.

Their magnificent height creates an otherworldly sanctuary filled with lush shade-loving understory plants like sword ferns, flowering currant, and huckleberry. Stands of old-growth coast redwoods once flourished on more than two million acres but have been reduced by extensive logging during the last 150 years. The coast redwoods at San Francisco Botanical Garden were planted around the turn of the 20th century and are among the oldest trees in the Botanical Garden. More than 100 species of associated plants have been added over the past 40 years to represent a typical redwood forest community.