Katse Botanical Garden was originally established to protect the spiral aloes displaced from the dam’s construction. It has flourished to include gravel, hillside trails passing via a rock garden, indigenous flowers, a medicinal section and a dam viewpoint. A plant-propagation project takes place in the greenhouse.
Katse Botanical Gardens is a centre for Alpine flora in Katse village, Lesotho.
The gardens were created as a result of plant rescue missions to mitigate the impact of the Katse Dam, particularly spiral aloes. The collection has a focus on traditional Sotho medicinal plants and has a large seed bank.
At an altitude of 2229 meters it claims to be the highest botanical garden in the southern hemisphere
The Katse Botanical Garden has its origins in the building of the Katse Dam, part of the Lesotho Highlands Water Project. A botanical garden was not initially planned for the area, but following the plant rescue mission in 1995 and 1996 before the inundation of the Katse reservoir, the garden was created to accommodate the rescued plants.
With the increasing loss of biodiversity in Lesotho through over-exploitation, the Katse Botanical Garden provides a unique natural and semi-natural setting to expose a wider audience to the floristic beauty of the indigenous plants of Lesotho.
Katse Botanical Garden strives to promote a better knowledge and understanding of the alpine flora of Lesotho through propagation, cultivation, and conservation of indigenous plants. It serves as an educational centre for local communities, as well as for scientists, students, and the visiting public.
This botanical garden is in the Katse village. If you visit the Dam wall, keep your receipt and you get free entrance to garden. It was established to preserve and propagate indigenous plants. There are medicinal plants with labels describing what they are used for. This is also home of the spiral aloe. Can be purchased here. Guides are very knowledgeable.
It very interesting and informative. During the planning phase of the dam, the team of engineers took into consideration the indigenous plants that would have been destroyed and rehabilitated them to this area. Comfortable and relaxed walk through the garden with sheltered rest areas. Scenic view of the dam. Worth a visit when you next visit Katse Dam
The Katse Botanical Garden is only a few hundred metres from the Guest Houses and the Katse Dam Lodge. Costs only R5 for a guided tour of Lesotho's indigenous wildflowers. There is a superb picnic shelter with a magnificent view of the dam and the Garden. Worth spending a couple of hours in this tranquil setting.
