Africa's first national park created primarily to protect wildflowers — a high-altitude botanical masterpiece.
Kitulo Plateau National Park is unlike any other park in Tanzania — and unlike any other park in Africa. Located at 2,600 metres above sea level in the Southern Highlands, Kitulo is a rolling, treeless plateau that explodes into one of the world's most spectacular wildflower displays between December and April: 350+ plant species including 45 species of terrestrial orchid, vast populations of red-hot pokers, Livingstone's daisies, geraniums, giant lobelias, and flowering herbs that together transform the plateau into what botanists have called the most diverse grassland flora in Africa.
The wildflower display is the park's defining phenomenon. During the December to April growing season, the plateau's rolling grassland is carpeted in flowers of extraordinary variety and density — orchids alone represent 45 species, some of them found nowhere else in Africa. The display is not confined to a few special spots; it covers thousands of hectares in every direction, an unbroken botanical garden at altitude where the only sounds are the wind in the grass, the calls of migratory birds, and the occasional distant rumble of thunder over the highlands.
The birds are Kitulo's second extraordinary feature. The plateau lies at the confluence of several major migratory flyways and supports an exceptional diversity of raptors, larks, and highland specialists. The Denham's bustard is regularly seen in the open grassland. The mountain marsh widow breeds here. The blue swallow — one of Africa's most threatened migratory birds — nests in Kitulo's high-altitude grasslands, making it one of the most important sites in East Africa for this species. Ethiopian snipe, Augur buzzard, and African harrier-hawk are all regular sightings.
The park is also a significant water catchment — the highlands feed the Great Ruaha River and the Rufiji system, and the intact grassland of Kitulo Plateau plays a critical role in the hydrology of southern Tanzania. The park was gazetted in 2005 partly in recognition of this hydrological significance and partly because its flora was under severe threat from intensive potato farming that was advancing up the plateau from its edges. The national park boundary stopped the farming and the flowers returned.
Haven Trails designs every safari around the destination's specific character — and Kitulo has a character all its own. Let us build your perfect itinerary.
