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3. Himeji City Tegarayama Botanical Garden

NatureHimeji City Tegarayama Botanical Garden

The Tegarayama Botanical Garden includes special exhibits at the entrance and brick plaza, permanent exhibits in a large and small greenhouse, a rock garden, herb garden, and flower beds. There's also a wonderful view of the scenery within and without the garden from the rest house, allowing guests to feel like they're surrounded by flowers.
In the Tegarayama Botanical Garden, 25,000 plants of 1,500 species in 120 families can be seen at all times, including rare and unusual ornamental plants and fruit trees from tropical and subtropical zones, desert plants such as cacti, orchids, begonias, and insectivorous plants.
The Himeji flower "sagi-kusa" (literally, "egret grass") is, as its name suggests, the same shape and color as a white egret. It was declared the Himeji City flower in August 1966, as it seemed a fitting flower to match Himeji Castle, which is also known as the "White Egret Castle." Sagi-kusa is a summer flower, but here it's cultivated and displayed in a green house so that it can be seen at any time of the year regardless of the season (it blooms year-round). There is also a booth in the garden where visitors can see Slender Dutchman's Pipe, a vine favored by the Himeji City butterfly, the Chinese windmill butterfly.
Wild plants from the Harima region, especially those on the verge of extinction, are also cultivated and displayed here, and efforts are being made to preserve them. Here, visitors are given the opportunity to learn about native plant species that may grow in areas you may not have noticed, such as reservoirs, waterways, rice paddies, and hills surrounding urban areas in this region.