Sarasota - Selby Botanical Gardens

Marie Selby Botanical Gardens in Sarasota specializes in epiphytes or plants that attach themselves to others without damaging them. The gardens here feature over 20,000 plants including a large collection of 6,000 orchids, bromeliads, cacti and succulents, hibiscus, cycads, bamboo trees and a banyan tree grove. Marie Selby Botanical Gardens also contains the Baywalk Sanctuary, which is an elevated boardwalk with views over a mangrove swamp and parts of the Sarasota bay. As well there is a museum of botany and the arts, a butterfly garden and a research and learning facility.