Flora & Fauna, But Mostly Flora

I was just looking through my San Diego Zoo pictures, and there are quite a few bad shots of cool animals, a few of my family being very silly, and some great pictures of the plants. I guess the plants were holding still as opposed to the animals and the family members resulting in better pictures! Anyways, this zoo is amazing for more than the animals, the landscaped environment is unlike any other and worth going to see even if you're not all that interested in the animals.

This first one was near the new elephant exhibit and was about 10 feet high, I have no idea what it is, but I was really intrigued by the unusual structure.

This swirled cactus reminded me of fractals, or the whorls on fingertips or on human brains.
This was a particularly big and beautiful cactus flower.

The obligatory panda bear shot. Since it is the San Diego zoo and all. They were unbearably cute but fierce at the same time.
So many cycads everywhere, they even had a special garden with several varieties I'd only ever seen in books or magazines. These ancient plants are really spectacular.

This peely bark tree was impressive. That deep rich color and all that lovely texture.

It is hard to get a good koala picture as they are all asleep and turned away from the visitors in their eucalyptus trees. This guy was in an enclosure we could walk around so I could finally capture that way-too-cute face.

And is there any better graphically designed animal than a zebra?