Lakeside Garden, Oakland

Lakeside Garden Center Asian garden

The Lakeside Park Demonstration Gardens near Lake Merritt are an urban oasis. There's a quiet and peaceful Asian garden and water feature behind the garden center building. The sound of the waterfall calms the mind.

A ten foot tall banana tree grows in the palm section, sprouting tiny green fruits below dry furled bracts. Bananas don't grow on trees but rather on pseudostems, according to Wikipedia, and the fruit grows from the ends of the flowers. 

pseudo botanical illustration