The Hohhot Botanical Garden, in the northern part of the city, specialises in the flora of the Inner Mongolian steppe and surrounding montane zones — a collection of grasses, wildflowers, medicinal plants, and shrubs that are found across the region's varied ecosystems. The steppe grass collection is the most distinctive: several dozen species of grass native to Inner Mongolia are displayed together, from the delicate needlegrasses of the high plateau to the robust sedges of the Hulunbuir wetlands.
The garden is a pleasant place to spend an hour or two and is particularly good in late June when the flowering grasses are at peak bloom. The medicinal plant section covers traditional Mongolian medicine's botanical pharmacopeia, with labels in both Chinese and Mongolian giving the traditional uses of each plant. For travellers who have been across the grassland landscapes and want to understand more specifically what they were looking at, the garden provides a useful taxonomy.