Qualla: Arboretum d'Antsokay

Arboretum d'Antsokay: Introduction

Tue, 24 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Andry Petignat, CC BY-SA 3.0. Herman Petignat arrived in southern Madagascar with a botanist's eye and a conservationist's urgency. The spiny forests around Toliara were vanishing -- consumed by slash-and-burn agriculture, bush fires, and illegal harvesting. In 1980, the Swiss-born Petignat began planting. Forty hectares of limestone and red sand, hedged with living fences, became a refuge for the plants that were losing ground everywhere else. Today the Arboretum d'Antsokay holds roughly 900 species, 90% of them endemic to Madagascar. Both Lonely Planet and Rough Guides list it as the top attraction in Toliara. What began as one man's rescue mission has become an internationally recognized conservation site, collaborating with the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, the WWF, and the Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund.

Read more: Arboretum d'Antsokay on Qualla

Image: Andry Petignat | CC BY-SA 3.0

Arboretum d'Antsokay: A Chalk Garden at the Edge of the Desert

Tue, 24 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Smiley.toerist, CC BY-SA 3.0. The arboretum sits just off Route Nationale 7, about 12 kilometres southeast of Toliara and only 6 kilometres from the airport. It occupies a patch of the Madagascar spiny forest ecoregion, a habitat found nowhere else on Earth. The name of the surrounding area, Antsokaha, means ...

Read more: Arboretum d'Antsokay on Qualla

Image: Smiley.toerist | CC BY-SA 3.0

Arboretum d'Antsokay: Euphorbia, Baobab, and the Names That Remember

Tue, 24 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Bernard DUPONT from FRANCE, CC BY-SA 2.0. Among the 900 species growing here, the stars include baobabs, the spiny Didierea madagascariensis, fleshy Pachypodium, and the towering Alluaudia procera. Petignat's collaboration with the German botanist Werner Rauh led to the discovery of several species new to science: Euphor...

Read more: Arboretum d'Antsokay on Qualla

Image: Bernard DUPONT from FRANCE | CC BY-SA 2.0

Arboretum d'Antsokay: Lemurs After Dark

Tue, 24 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Smiley.toerist, CC BY-SA 3.0. The arboretum is alive with more than plants. Mouse lemurs -- among the smallest primates on Earth, small enough to fit in a cupped hand -- inhabit the grounds and can be spotted on guided night walks. Thirty-four bird species have been recorded here, including the red-capped cou...

Read more: Arboretum d'Antsokay on Qualla

Image: Smiley.toerist | CC BY-SA 3.0

Arboretum d'Antsokay: A Family Legacy in the Spiny Forest

Tue, 24 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Smiley.toerist, CC BY-SA 3.0. Herman Petignat ran the arboretum for over two decades before his son Andry took over management in 2003. The generational handoff matters in a place where conservation is measured in decades, not seasons. According to Botanic Gardens Conservation International, Petignat "exerted...

Read more: Arboretum d'Antsokay on Qualla

Image: Smiley.toerist | CC BY-SA 3.0