The Lloyd Botanic Garden, Darjeeling, carries the memory of Mr. William Lloyd, an old, generous and well known resident of Darjeeling, who in 1878 donated one of the beautiful 40acres land within the heart of town for creation of this botanical garden in the Himalaya as a branch establishment of the than Royal Botanic Garden, Calcutta. The landscaping was done with terracing under the guidance of Late George King with arranging a variety of combination of alpine plants Arum, Lilies, Geraniums, free flowering Composite, spectacular Azaleas, Rhododendrons and various conifers. The indigenous plants in the Garden represent more or less the characteristic flora of the Sikkim Himalayas.The Garden was handed over to Silviculture (Hills) Division, Research wing, of the Forest Directorate Government of West Bengal, during the year 28th July, 1994 and since then the Garden is maintained and developed by this Division.
Herbarium
Herbarium and the Office building is an old heritage building constructed in the late Elizabethan style, surrounded by hedges of “American pillarsâ€. The Herbarium is arranged according to Bentham and Hooker’s system of classification. It contains a unique collection of 14251 specimens of dried plants collected since 1850’s. This represents more than 3584 Eastern Himalayan species.
Library
A collection of 100 books and Journals of Botany, Horticulture and in other field of knowledge.The book “In the footsteps of Augustine Henry and his Chinese Plant collectors†was donated by the author him self Mr. Semus O’Brien, on his visit during expeditions on “Footsteps of Sir J.D.Hookerâ€, here at Lloyd Botanic Garden on dated 19th November, 2012.
Orchidarium
Orchidarium of Lloyd Botanic Garden is located near the Herbarium and main building. It is one of the important places of attraction. There is a collection of 75 species of Eastern Himalaya wild orchids of immense biological importance. To name afew important species are Blue Vanda (Vanda coerulea), Ladies slipper Orchids Paphiopedilium spp. and Red Vanda (Renanthera imschootiana) etc.
Main Trees
Rare plants have been grown here and rest represents rare (R), Endangered (EN) spp. with immense taxonomic and biological interest. Conspicuous among them are Ginkgo biloba ,Metasequoia glyptostroboides Magnolia campbellii, different Species of Rhododendron, Tsuga,Pinus ,Quercus, Taxus, Acer, Betula etc
Large Conservatory
The Large Conservatory is the only of its kind in Asia. It is uniquely built in arch fashion. Inside of this Large Conservatory beautiful seasonal as well as perennial flowers & ornamental plants have been displayed in number of galleries with fountain at the centre.
Cactii
Consist of more than 20 different species of Cactii. Most conspicuous of them are Mammillaria, Notocactus etc. The garden is making efforts to have some more diversity.
Succulents
This is also otherwise known as Small conservatory located adjacent to Large Conservatory. Though this is a small conservatory accommodating a number of important species of succulents including precious ferns.
Sir John Anderson Rock Garden
This is a spectacular place of the Lloyd Botanic Garden. This represents various seasonal and perennial floras of the Darjeeling Himalaya. Liverwarts and moss display will be here
