- UCLA MATHIAS BOTANICAL GARDEN

SITE VISIT -- MARCH 8, 2025

Hours:

February through October
Weekdays: 8AM to 5PM
Weekends: 9AM to 5PM

November through January
Weekdays: 8AM to 4PM
Weekends: 9AM to 4PM

Address: 707 Tiverton Drive
Los Angeles, CA 90095

https://www.botgard.ucla.edu/

The Mathias Botanical Garden seeks to promote botanical knowledge and appreciation of nature to the UCLA community and public at large. Its diverse plant collections are designed to assist the teaching and research missions at UCLA while creating a tranquil environment within the urban surroundings. The Garden acts as a community gathering place for a wide variety of groups and through its own events promotes plant conservation, botanical research and horticulture.

JOURNAL ENTRY

On arriving at UCLA to explore the Mathias Botanical Garden I was briefly perplexed as to which gate to enter. I was late and behind schedule and didn’t want to waste time entering from a less than advantageous starting point.

The UCLA campus is expansive and impressive and the Mathias Botanical Garden represents its jewel in the crown. The garden is named after Mildred E. Mathias (1906-1995), who was a professor of botany at UCLA and an acclaimed environmental conservationist. It is noted that she helped shape the direction of the amazing collections of the garden and develop it into an outdoor classroom -- a perpetual learning experience. The garden is approximately 7.5 acres and it functions as a public garden and laboratory.

The great thing about the UCLA Mathias Botanical Garden is its welcoming nature and comforting landscape for students and other visitors to enjoy a moment of mindfulness and relax around the eclectic scenery. At different times during the day I saw students doing classwork, visitors reading books or listening to music and humming the tunes, all the while taking advantage of the serenity. And of course, there were folks aplenty taking photographs!

The UCLA Mathias Botanical Garden is considered a living museum!