Facts about the OKC Zoo Botanical Garden

The Zoo promotes plant education, research and collection development.

The Zoo hosts the largest, walk-through outdoor Butterfly Garden in Oklahoma, encompassing 21,000 square feet.

The Zoo grows unusual and hard-to-find plants for display on grounds and in exhibits, including many unusual trees such as hardy eucalyptus, Chinese parasol trees and alligator junipers. Other species include the North American Woodland and remnants of the ancient cross-timbers.

The Zoo is home to over 20 designated horticultural displays and collections. Identification plaques and labels distinguish significant plants throughout Zoo grounds.

The Zoo includes more than 100 Oklahoma native species, 22 of which are listed as imperiled or rare.

The Zoo contains Oklahoma's largest collection of hardy bamboo.

The Zoo includes more than 30,000 specimens of flowering bulbs such as tulips, daffodils, hyacinths, crocus, narcissus, iris and ornamental onions every spring.

Enrichment and dietary supplements for Zoo animals are grown in the Zoo’s browse garden and include vegetables, squash, bamboo, tomatoes, herbs, catnip, mulberry trees, willows, canes, day lily flowers, Swiss chard and sugar cane.

The Zoo planted more than 100 trees in the Oklahoma Trails exhibit for the 2007 Tree Banks Foundations’ Centennial Tree Grove program, celebrating 100 years of Oklahoma statehood.  Most of the plants were obtained from Oklahoma-based plant nurseries or grown at the Zoo.

The Oklahoma Trails exhibit contains 70 different plant species, totaling approximately 4000 trees, shrubs, grasses and perennials.