Museums & Galleries in San Francisco

Established more than a century ago inside Golden Gate Park, the Conservatory of Flowers houses a vibrant array of rare, exotic, and tropical plants and flowers. Mosey through the National Historic Landmark’s aquatic plants display, where peaceful sounds of cascading water complement the sight of giant Amazonian water lilies with pads up to 6 feet in diameter, leading to their frequent use as trampolines for spider monkeys. The highland tropics area invokes the appearance of misty cloud forests on tropical mountaintops blooming with hundreds of delicate orchids and a forest of stunted trees. A century-old giant philodendron resides in the lowland tropics display alongside the conservatory's cycads, which predate the dinosaurs and many veteran game-show hosts. The potted plants display shows off nature's bounty inside copper urns from India and hand-incised ceramic pots from Burkina Faso, and the temporary Playland at the Conservatory re-creates the historic Playland at the Beach from San Francisco's West End with model trains, miniature famous attractions, and memorabilia from the fair.