In the heart of UCLA's busy campus, students, staff and visitors find an oasis of peace and tranquility in the Mildred E. Mathias Botanical Garden. On any given day, visitors stroll the garden's sloping pathways, enjoy picnic lunches, or sit on stone benches to read or meditate. Schoolchildren march through on tours, breaking away from their guides to look for frogs.
Visitors sometimes celebrate birthdays in the garden.
Some have proposed marriage there, and couples have exchanged wedding vows under the leafy canopy. Among the natural wonders to be seen in the garden is the tallest dawn redwood in North America that grows near the center of the garden beside a stream. The Metasequoia was once thought to be a fossil until it was found growing in central China in 1944. The garden's tree sprouted from seeds from China planted in 1948. Two Eucalyptus grandis trees, natives of the Australian rain forest, were planted in the garden 40 years ago and now are among the tallest specimens in the United States.