The 137-hectare Jardins Botaniques has walking paths that wind their way through the garden past ponds, palms, a massive banyan tree and a superb mape forest. The gardens were founded in 1919 by an American, Harrison Smith, who introduced many plants to Tahiti including the large southeast Asian pomelo known on Tahiti as pamplemousse, the French word for grapefruit.
Unfortunately, Smith also introduced one or two botanical disasters that Tahiti could well have done without, including the Miconia calvescens, which has caused serious damage to other plants. Mosquitoes in the gardens can be fierce.