Durban's Botanic Gardens traces its origins to colonial times, when it was founded in 1849 for the introduction and trial of potentially useful commercial crops. The Botanic Gardens are a just few minutes walk from the bustling Warwick Triangle, site of one of the largest retail medicinal plant markets in the country. The Gardens hosts approximately half a million visitors a year, many of whom are foreign tourists. The main collections are of Orchids, Palms and Cycads, and the focus of present and forthcoming collection efforts.

The Botanic Gardens intends to maintain the cosmopolitan flavour of the cycad collection, which is currently ranked among the top ten botanical garden cycad collections in the world. A new start was made and in 1851 the Durban Botanic Gardens was re-established nearer town on its present site. Twenty-five acres were soon increased to 50. McKen, rough and ready though he was, began to establish a serious garden of plants of economic value: sugarcane, cinchona, tea, coffee, rubber and pineapples. The Botanic Gardens are a must for any visitor to Durban.