The Bay Area’s mild temperatures, wet winters and dry summers, coupled with San Francisco’s famous coastal fog, provide a range of land formations create a myriad of climatic conditions that exist in few other areas of the world. These unique conditions allow us to grow and conserve plants from all over the globe, including plants that are no longer found in their native habitats.
You can get a look at the Bay Area’s uniqueness by visiting the many gardens located throughout the Bay Area.
For example, with its unique microclimate, San Francisco Botanical Garden is able to recreate conditions of the high elevation tropical cloud forests of Central and South America and Southeast Asia. Rare high elevation palms as well as plants from New Zealand and temperate Asia also thrive here. For example, it houses the world’s fourth most significant collection of Magnolia for conservation process, and is the most important outside China, where a majority of Magnolia species are found.