Subtropical Greenhouse of Wando Arboretum (완도수목원 아열대온실)

The garden is a creation of South Jeolla Province: the ordinance establishing Wando Arboretum was promulgated on 11 February 1991 and the institution was launched on 10 April of that year, according to the Encyclopedia of Korean Culture. A subtropical greenhouse was created there in 1993, according to a press release from the arboretum in January 2023 repeated by the regional press. In 1998 the arboretum was merged with the provincial Forest Environment Research Institute; it was entered in the register of public arboreta on 17 August 2007 as the Wando Warm-Temperate Arboretum and renamed in 2008.

In January 2023 a booklet on the greenhouse presented 141 representative plants, cacti, succulents and subtropical species, with photographs and origins, together with the biological resources surveyed on the estate. The number of species announced is 506 in the encyclopedia (text written in 2015), 559 in an article by the Korea Tourism Organization (information from 2019), 592 in January 2023 and then 601 in May 2023 in the arboretum's releases.

The site's future is in motion. In December 2025 the Korea Forest Service announced the final budget, 181.5 billion won, for a national warm-temperate arboretum at Wando covering 376 hectares. Works are planned for 2026 to 2030: the project is to renovate the provincial arboretum opened in 1991 and includes an exhibition greenhouse among its planned facilities.

The May 2023 release speaks of a glass greenhouse (유리온실) of 3,762 m². A visit report that cites the arboretum as its source describes the installation as 3,196 m² of exhibition space (the figure also given by Korean Wikipedia), divided into two rooms, the tropical and subtropical garden and the cactus and succulent garden (324.4 m²), plus a propagation room and a management building.

A regional tourism portal (badaon.or.kr) describes four spaces instead: a main hall for tropical and subtropical plants, a room for cacti and succulents, a room for native orchids and a propagation area run separately. The 2023 release also mentions landscaping inside and outside the greenhouse, with a photo area, and the county presents the installation as the largest in the south of the country.

The May 2023 release announces 601 subtropical species, among them the Washington palm (워싱턴야자) and the cactus 금호 (geumho), and says the display gives the impression of a tropical forest. It highlights air plants (Tillandsia), presented as air-purifying, brunfelsias with strongly scented white and blue-violet flowers, the Australian kangaroo paw (Anigozanthos flavidus), the Wollemi pine, said to have been eaten by dinosaurs, and butcher's broom (Ruscus aculeatus), whose flowers grow on the leaf.

A visit report of January 2023, which cites the arboretum, adds for the tropical part Washington palms and royal palms (대왕야자), tree ferns and birds of paradise, and for the cactus room geumho, agaves, aloes and crowns of thorns (꽃기린). It also notes a tree native to Mexico, the yuhyang-namu (유향나무), whose resin is used in perfumery. The Encyclopedia of Korean Culture puts the total shown in the greenhouse at 506 species; the more recent figures in the press releases are higher.

Wando Arboretum covers about 2,050 hectares of evergreen warm-temperate forest, on the rear slope of Mount Sanghwangbong in Gunoe township. The greenhouse stands on the busiest route, the central observation path, which passes it and the forest museum before descending. Above it, the specialised gardens (rare plants, medicinal plants) lead to the first viewpoint, past the rock garden with boulders nicknamed "UFO" and "dinosaur".

A travel article of July 2026 recommends the forest museum and the greenhouse, both indoors, for rainy or very hot days, and suggests combining the visit with Wando harbour, the Cheonghaejin ruins and the nearby islands of Bogildo and Cheongsando. From the viewpoint, the view takes in Dadohae Haesang National Park. The garden is closed on the first Monday of the month, on 1 January and during the Seollal and Chuseok holidays.