UC Botanic Garden at Berkeley, where I stomp around the Southern Hemisphere

Editing down my UCBG photos I went back to my 2014 post hoping I'd shared a map (I did)—I was curious if much had changed in the formal layout of the garden (here's the current edition). The graphics had been refined, but the layout hadn't changed much, other than the addition of Julia Morgan Hall, which you'll see in the distance of a photo in this post. I've never been inside (think it was under construction in 2014), and I was shocked to see a a greenhouse near the Hall labeled as "Orchid, Fern and Carnivorous Plant House"...WHAT? It was on the 2014 map too. How have I never been inside!?! Augh...

Moving on from that disappointment, here's my March 2025 pic at the entrance to the garden...

And the 2014 version, back then it was sunny September day. Check out how much the Yucca rostrata has grown! There's still a palm, but it's seemingly shorter, and back further from the wall. There's also the addition of security spikes along the top of the wall in the 2025 version. Damn.

On to the garden's Southern Africa section...

Their Aloe plicatilis (Kumara plicatilis) is one of the first, and most charismatic, plants you see in this part of the garden. I remember it well from my previous visits and was glad to see it was still looking fantasitc.

As you might have noticed in the photos above, the whole hillside was alive with spring blooms, here is Ferraria crispa ssp. crispa (Western Cape Province, South Africa).

Gladiolus alatus (Western Cape Province, South Africa)

I didn't catch the name of this aloe.

Leucospermum reflexum var. luteum (Western Cape Province, South Africa)

Melianthus major (South Africa)

I've grown this one in my garden, as have several other Portlanders. The flowers are a little elusive in my climate though, as winter can sometimes kill back the plant.

Babiana angustifolia (Western Cape Province, South Africa). Thanks to Gerhard (my partner in plant crime for this adventure) for the name of this purple flowering bulb, it was everywhere but yet I failed to catch it's name.

Gladiolus patersoniae (Western Cape Province, South Africa)

Salvia lutea (Eastern Cape Province, South Africa)

Leucospermum glabrum (South Africa)

Cheilanthes multifida ssp. lancerata (Malawi [East Africa])

There's Julia Morgan Hall, and on it's right the Orchid, Fern and Carnivorous Plant House *sigh*...

If you pan back up to the above photo, and look at the V created by the two hillsides, this is the view in the distance, San Francisco! 

Greyia radlkoferi (Natal bottlebrush, South Africa)

Aloe maculata (Free State Prov., South Africa)

Aloe capitata var. quartziticola (Madagascar)

Caputia pyramidata (Eastern Cape Province, South Africa)

And our last plant in the Southern Africa section, Aloe polyphylla from mountains of Lesotho, South Africa.

Since I had just a handful of plant photos from other Southern Hemisphere regions I thought I'd go ahead and squeeze them into this post. Banksia aemula (New South Wales, Australia)...

Banksia spinulosa (New South Wales, Australia)

And then we're on to South America for some Puya admiration...

Puya chilensis, from central Chile.

While I would have loved a blue sky on which to capture those green blooms, the white gives them a clinical look which is fun.

Or maybe more of a flat-lay scan quality.

Puya coerulea var. intermedia (Talca Prov., Chile)

Silver foliage and dark buds/blooms... what's not to love?

Finally, we end with a fern from Chile. The label I photographed said Beilschmiedia berteroana, but that's a tree, so I'm going with what I think this fern to be and that's Blechnum chilense, aka Parablechnum cordatum or the Chilean hard fern (costilla de vaca... cow's rib).

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