The North Carolina Botanical Garden (about 700 acres, plus 210 acres of nature preserves) is operated by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
The history of the Garden begins in 1903, when Professor William Chambers Coker began planting trees and shrubs on the central campus (now Coker Arboretum). Today the Garden comprises 14 collections and display gardens, containing about 2,500 species of the 4,700 plant species known to be native or naturalized in North and South Carolina. It has become one of the largest native plant botanical gardens in the Southeastern United States.