Plants

Around the front entrance of the Zoo, the landscape beds feature a high percentage of Pacific Northwest native plants as well as plants that are adapted to low water use, are deer resistant, and require minimal long-term maintenance: rhododendrons, Oregon grape and salal, plus a striking giant sequoia, quaking aspen and silk tassel bush, with its dangling white flower garlands.

The Asian Forest Sanctuary features Asian plants as well as tropical looking plants from other parts of the world. Asian Forest Sanctuary plants include the gigantic leaved Chilean Rhubarb, many colorful leaved plants, and an ever-changing assortment of flowering perennials. In addition, there are over 45 types of temperate bamboos with stems of various colors like yellow, black, and green with stripes; see how many types you can spot!

A desert in the rainy Pacific Northwest? You bet! Near the entrance to the Kids’ Zone area, the landscape is full of xeric plants, or plants that need little water. Find yuccas, succulents, sedums, aloes, agaves, fan palms and even cactus! Kids’ Zone plants include many glaucous colored plants with a grayish, bluish or whitish waxy coating, and some of the plant kingdom’s most spiny citizens – look out for the “Jaws” agave plant, named for its shark-tooth-shaped leaves.

Nestled into Kids’ Zone near our adorable goats, the Pollinator Garden isn’t just a hillside filled with the bright, colorful flowers loved by bees, butterflies and hummingbirds. It also tells you how to recreate one at home to support these hard-working pollinators.

From the Zoo entrance down to the Wild Wonders Outdoor Theater, the landscape beds feature an eclectic collection of garden worthy plants from around the world. These plants require minimal care but are amazing for their structure, flowers, leaves, stems, and smells, as well as their ability to be incorporated into landscapes for attracting wildlife. You’ll find maples with animal names – lion’s head, coral bark – scattered amongst mahogany-barked manzanita. Massive clumps of yellow Japanese forest grass sway in the breeze, and in spring, snowbell and boxleaf azara scent the air.

Many plants are also rare or endangered, like the pineapple-shaped Cycas panzhihuanensis. And can you spot the Wollemi pine, a Jurassic-era Australian native that was only known through fossil records until it was rediscovered in 1994? (Hint: Look for bark that resembles Cocoa Pops cereal!)

The Red Wolf Woods exhibit features plants from the South-East United States, the native home of red wolves. Stroll along the meandering path surrounded by perennials, shrubs, and trees which explode into color at various times of year. Look for dinner plate sized flowering hibiscus ‘Kopper King’, the amazing geometrically shaped Maypop flower, and the beautiful flowers and bark of crape myrtles.

When you enter the Arctic Tundra Exhibit, you may think this area of the zoo was forgotten in our planning because it looks so natural. But in fact, the Arctic Tundra Exhibit landscaping is based on the landscape around Point Hope, Alaska. Here grass dominates the landscape; shrubs and trees are scattered and dwarfed in size.

Wander along the paths above and below Kids Zone, and you’ll think you’ve been transported to the other side of the world. These are the Southern Borders – as in, Southern Hemisphere. Spot Australian plants that thrive in drought like woolly tea tree, spiky bottlebrush (yes, the ochre flower looks just like one) and aromatic mint bush. There are dazzling torch lilies in colors from tangerine to lime and melianthus (honeybush) from South Africa, with the latter’s feathery green leaves smelling like peanut butter. From New Zealand there’s reddish flax, silver spear astelia chathamica, grassy orange libertia peregrinans and the skeletal wire netting bush. From Chile come the towering monkey puzzle tree, with long spiky branches cascading down, and the vanilla-smelling azara microphylla.

And that’s not to mention all the other northern plants that fit right in: Echium pininana with skyrocketing blue flower spires, or the purple artichoke thistle beloved by bees.

Inspired by the warm-water animals of Baja Bay inside the new Pacific Seas Aquarium, the Baja Bed just near the entrance is planted to look as much like Mexico’s Baja Peninsula as you can get in the rainy Northwest. Yuccas, feathergrass, dasylirions like giant pincushions and “Hot Lips” salvia share space with shark-toothed agave gentryi, prickly pear, cholla and a low cactus that sprawls over the white pebble mulch like a green octopus. Hesperaloes send out spears of red or yellow flowers that hummingbirds love, while shore pines give a south-of-the-border look.