 From the 1930s the Flecker Botanic Gardens has fulfilled the traditional functions of a botanical gardens, including increasing horticultural knowledge about local plants with a view to developing their economic potential, sharing of this knowledge and seed stock with like-minded institutions nationally and internationally, providing an attractive and educative venue for public recreation, and in some instances providing plant material to the public.The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places.The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a substantial wet tropics public botanical gardens that has evolved over time, including early groupings of exotic and indigenous plantings (early to mid 20th century) and the botanical display garden, designed and developed by curator Vince Winkel in the 1960s.