Karoo Desert National Botanical Garden Karoo Desert National Botanical Garden The Karoo Desert National Botanical Garden is a botanical garden focused on succulents and other plants of arid regions, that lies at the foot of the Hex River Mountains range, in the town of Worcester, South Africa. It was originally set up in 1921 near Matjiesfontein further inland. However, in 1945 it was moved to Worcester. It is today one of nine National Botanical Gardens that are run by the South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI). The Garden spans an area of with only being cultivated. The remainder preserves the natural vegetation of the area,
Ryn Desert can drop to a low of . Many small towns are scattered throughout the Ryn Desert, and population density is between 1 and 15 people per square mile. The Ryn lies in a semi-arid climate zone, and receives very little rainfall. High winds sweep across the desert, and in 2001 a dust storm in the Baltic Sea was determined as originating in the Ryn Desert. A study of long-range dust transportation to the Baltic Sea region—by analyzing dust pollution in Scandinavia, showed that aerosol concentrations there were influenced more by the Ryn Desert region than the Sahara Desert in Africa.