by Maria Comellas 
El Marimurtra Botanical Garden located in the municipality of Blanes It is considered the best Mediterranean botanical garden in Europe and its mission is to increase and spread knowledge of Mediterranean plants and landscapes, as well as to preserve threatened and endangered flora. Its name is derived from the combination of existing ecosystems in the same garden. He is a member of bgci and the Ibero-Macaronesian Association of Botanical Gardens. It is necessary to highlight the great influx of visitors, which some year have exceeded half a million, which makes it one of the favorite tourist places for people who choose Blanes or the Costa Brava as a holiday destination.
It is located on the outskirts of Blanes, in the mountains on very steep terrain and part of the garden overlooks the cliff over the Mediterranean, which provides excellent views of the sea. The land, of about 16 hectares, was an acquisition of its founder carl faust, a businessman with a naturalist who took him to buy land in Blanes from 1918.
The garden houses some 4.000 plant species for the purpose of study, teaching and botanical research, which together with its presentation has added aesthetic and landscape values. The enclosures open to the public total about 5 hectares.
In addition to the botanical garden, the founder created a research center: the International Station for Mediterranean Biology, a pioneer in Spain for innovative work in the fields of evolutionary biology and molecular systematics of Mediterranean plants. Scientific expeditions to different regions of the world have provided a large part of the garden's plants. The rest has been achieved through exchanges with other botanic gardens around the world.
The tour of the main path of the garden lasts about an hour and is full of beautiful viewpoints over the Mediterranean. The plants are distributed according to scientific criteria, but also aesthetic. Poetry can even be found in various intimate corners of the garden.
Type of plants in the Marimurtra Botanical Garden
The types of plants that we can find in the garden are:
- Cactaceae and succulent plants from the arid regions of South Africa and Central America.
- Large subtropical plants: palm trees, araucarias, cycas... that give it a character of great exuberance
- Ponds with collections of aquatic plants
- Exotic, medicinal and aromatic plants
- Collection of Ferns present in the mountains of the community of Catalonia
