JARDIN SCIENTIFIQUE DE N'DJAMENA

This small garden, conceived and created by Alain Beauvilain, well known for his part in the discovery of Toumaï, was inaugurated in 1992 after several years of effort to obtain permission to use a plot of land owned by France but which had long lain fallow. Here you'll find a compendium of Chad's most interesting tree species, clearly identified and documented on small information panels. In particular, you'll be able to observe superb elephant feet(Beaucarnea recurvata), which look like flowering baobabs and whose cardiotoxic latex was used to poison the arrows of warriors and hunters. You'll also find nerés, caïlcedrats(Kaya senegalensis), ficus, jujube trees (whose small orange fruit is a delight for children), carob trees and even soap trees, which the Toubous call desert date palms because their sweet little fruits have enabled them to survive many periods of famine. There's even an acacia albida that farmers love, as it loses its foliage in the rainy season, allowing the sun's rays to reach the crops. But plants are not the only treasures of this garden. There is also a collection of rocks from the Chadian desert and petrified wood trunks from the Pala forest. Alain Beauvilain is responsible for this beautiful collection, which he assembled by visiting the collection sites himself.