Trees of Life

A stone’s throw from Boca, Constitution Park & Arboretum is a natural wonderland

Written by JOHN THOMASON

One of the most beautiful and distinctive parks in Broward County is easy to miss. Yet Constitution Park & Arboretum’s inconspicuous location—on Hillsboro Boulevard between a Bedding Barn and a Target—is part of its charm as a nature lover’s speakeasy. For those who do discover it, the Arboretum becomes their place for everything: photo shoots, birthday parties, dog walking, meditating. On a recent morning, we saw two plein-air painters set up with easels and palettes, endeavoring to capture the light on the palms and pagodas. It’s close, it’s free, and it’s a little bit of Eden.

To get there, you must first traverse such park staples as basketball courts, tennis courts and an indoor recreation center. Wend past these amenities, and before you know it, the traffic sounds have faded and you’ve found your happy place, an arboretum—or, in the park’s verbiage, a“tree zoo”—housing more than 200 exotic trees from around the world, their leaves emitting an olfactory bouquet. Placards, overseen by the nonprofit Friends of the Arboretum, identify the various species, from strawberry guava to cashew trees, desert cassia to tamarind, zombie palms to the purplish, alien-looking shaving brush tree.

In season, the jackfruit trees bloom with the sweet, giant oblongs, which some visitors dislodge with walking sticks and carry home with them. Asian imports such as Japanese yew and towering bamboo frame the arboretum’s serene Zen Garden, a hideaway within a hideaway. The bamboo stalks creak and crackle during breezy days.

For most of the arboretum, there is a surfaced walking path—with all due respect to Joni Mitchell, you can both pave and preserve paradise—but off-roading is encouraged, especially if you want to identify every tree. And for a while, the asphalt gives way to a bed of wood chips, which crunch underfoot for the park’s piece de resistance: two burbling waterfalls and two bridges, lorded over by an enormous banyan. Sometimes, an artificial mist will descend on the scene, and “croaks” from hidden speakers simulate the effect of a rainforest. I prefer the setting without such enhancements. There are already plenty of twittering songbirds, scampering iguanas and screeching squirrels to generate a faunal sound bath, no technology needed.

Finish the walk with a short foray under the flowering vine pergola before heading back to your car, where even the parking lot is dense with labeled trees. The entire park is just a half-mile stroll, or 1,000 steps—a shrug of the Fitbit—which is ever more reason to turn around and start again. Keep your eyes, ears and nose open. You’ll notice something new every time.

Constitution Park and Arboretum is at 2841 W. Hillsboro Blvd., Deerfield Beach. For information, call 954/480-4494.