Abotanical garden orbotanic garden[nb 1] is agarden with a documented collection of living plants for the purpose of scientific research, conservation, display, and education.[1] It is their mandate as a botanical garden that plants are labelled with theirbotanical names. It may contain specialist plant collections such ascacti and othersucculent plants,herb gardens, plants from particular parts of the world, and so on; there may beglasshouses orshadehouses, again with special collections such astropicalplants,alpine plants, or otherexotic plants that are not native to that region.
Most are at least partly open to the public, and may offer guided tours, public programming such as workshops, courses, educational displays,art exhibitions, book rooms, open-air theatrical and musical performances, and other entertainment.
Botanical gardens are often run by universities or other scientific research organizations, and often have associatedherbaria and research programmes inplant taxonomy or some other aspect of botanical science. In principle, their role is to maintain documented collections of living plants for the purposes of scientific research, conservation, display, and education, although this will depend on the resources available and the special interests pursued at each particular garden. The staff will normally includebotanists as well as gardeners.
Many botanical gardens offer diploma/certificate programs inhorticulture, botany and taxonomy. There are many internship opportunities offered to aspiring horticulturists. As well as opportunities for students/researchers to use the collection for their studies.
The "NewRoyal Horticultural Society Dictionary of Gardening" (1999) points out that among the various kinds of organizations known as botanical gardens, there are many that are in modern times public gardens with little scientific activity, and it cited a tighter definition published by theWorld Wildlife Fund andIUCN when launching the "Botanic Gardens Conservation Strategy" in 1989: "A botanic garden is a garden containing scientifically ordered and maintained collections of plants, usually documented and labelled, and open to the public for the purposes of recreation, education and research."[2]
This has been further reduced byBotanic Gardens Conservation International to the following definition which "encompasses the spirit of a true botanic garden":[3] "A botanic garden is an institution holding documented collections of living plants for the purposes of scientific research, conservation, display and education."[4]The following definition was produced by staff of the Liberty Hyde BaileyHortorium ofCornell University in 1976. It covers in some detail the many functions and activities generally associated with botanical gardens:[5]
A botanical garden is a controlled and staffed institution for the maintenance of a living collection of plants under scientific management for purposes of education and research, together with such libraries, herbaria, laboratories, and museums as are essential to its particular undertakings. Each botanical garden naturally develops its own special fields of interests depending on its personnel, location, extent, available funds, and the terms of its charter. It may include greenhouses, test grounds, anherbarium, an arboretum, and other departments. It maintains a scientific as well as a plant-growing staff, and publication is one of its major modes of expression.
The botanic garden may be an independent institution, a governmental operation, or affiliated to a college or university. If a department of an educational institution, it may be related to a teaching program. In any case, it exists for scientific ends and is not to be restricted or diverted by other demands. It is not merely a landscaped or ornamental garden, although it may be artistic, nor is it an experiment station or yet a park with labels on the plants. The essential element is the intention of the enterprise, which is the acquisition and dissemination of botanical knowledge.
All botanical gardens have their own special interests. In a paper on the role of botanical gardens,Ferdinand von Mueller (1825–1896), the director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Melbourne (1852–1873), stated, "in all cases the objects [of a botanical garden] must be mainly scientific and predominantly instructive".[6] He detailed many of the objectives being pursued by the world's botanical gardens in the middle of the 19th century, when European gardens were at their height. Many of these are listed below to give a sense of the scope of botanical gardens' activities at that time, and the ways in which they differed from parks or what he called "publicpleasure gardens":[6]
availability of plants for scientific research
display of plant diversity in form and use
display of plants of particular regions (including local)
plants sometimes grown within their particular families
Botanical gardens have always responded to the interests and values of the day. If a single function were to be chosen from the early literature on botanical gardens, it would be their scientific endeavour and, flowing from this, their instructional value. In their formative years, botanical gardens were gardens for physicians and botanists, but they became more associated with ornamental horticulture and the needs of the general public. The scientific reputation of a botanical garden is judged by the publications coming out of herbaria and similar facilities, not by its living collections.[7] Their focus has been on creating an awareness of the threat to theEarth's ecosystems from human populations and its consequent need for biological and physical resources. Botanical gardens provide an excellent medium for communication between the world of botanical science and the general public. Education programs can help the public develop greaterenvironmental awareness by understanding the meaning and importance of ideas like conservation and sustainability.[8]
Gardens by the Bay, SingaporeThe Botanical Building is considered to be one of the largest lath wooden creations in the world and is home to over 2000 varieties of vegetation. It is located adjacent to the lily pond in Balboa Park, San Diego, CA and is currently undergoing a lengthy renovation, 2024.
Worldwide, there are now about 1800 botanical gardens andarboreta in about 150 countries (mostly in temperate regions) of which about 550 are inEurope (150 of which are inRussia),[9] 200 inNorth America,[10] and an increasing number in East Asia.[11] These gardens attract about 300 million visitors a year.[12]
Historically, botanical gardens exchanged plants through the publication of seed lists (calledLatin:Indices Seminae in the 18th century). This was a means of transferring both plants and information between botanical gardens. This system continues today, though with attention to the risks of genetic piracy and transmission ofinvasive species.[13]
The International Association of Botanic Gardens[14] was formed in 1954 as a worldwide organisation affiliated to theInternational Union of Biological Sciences. More recently, coordination has also been provided byBotanic Gardens Conservation International (BGCI), which has the mission "To mobilise botanic gardens and engage partners in securing plant diversity for the well-being of people and the planet".[15]
Regional co-ordination is seen in the United States with theAmerican Public Gardens Association[16] (formerly the American Association of Botanic Gardens and Arboreta), while in Australasia there is the Botanic Gardens of Australia and New Zealand (BGANZ).[17]
The history of botanical gardens is closely linked to the history ofbotany itself. The botanical gardens of the 16th and 17th centuries were medicinal gardens, but the idea of a botanical garden changed to encompass displays of the beautiful, strange, new and sometimes economically important plant trophies being returned from the European colonies and other distant lands.[18] In the 18th century, they became more educational in function, demonstrating the latest plant classification systems devised by botanists working in the associated herbaria as they tried to order these new treasures. Then, in the 19th and 20th centuries, the trend was towards a combination of specialist and eclectic collections demonstrating aspects of both horticulture and botany.[19]
The idea of "scientific" gardens used specifically for the study of plants dates back to antiquity.[20] The origin of modern botanical gardens is generally traced to the appointment of botany professors to the medical faculties of universities in 16th-century Renaissance Italy, which entailed curating a medicinal garden. However, the objectives, content, and audience of today's botanic gardens more closely resembles that of the grandiose gardens of antiquity and the educational garden ofTheophrastus in the Lyceum of ancient Athens.[21]
Near-eastern royal gardens set aside for economic use or display and containing at least some plants gained by special collecting trips or military campaigns abroad, are known from the second millennium BCE inancient Egypt,Mesopotamia,Crete,Mexico andChina.[23] In about 2800 BCE, the Chinese EmperorShen Nung sent collectors to distant regions searching for plants with economic or medicinal value.[24] It has also been suggested that theSpanish colonization of Mesoamerica influenced the history of the botanical garden[20] as gardens inTenochtitlan established by kingNezahualcoyotl,[25] also gardens inChalco (altépetl) and elsewhere, greatly impressed the Spanish invaders, not only with their appearance, but also because the indigenousAztecs employed many more medicinal plants than did the classical world of Europe.[26][27]
Early medieval gardens inIslamic Spain resembled later botanic gardens, an example being the 11th-century Huerta del Rey garden of physician and authorIbn Wafid (999–1075 CE) inToledo. This was taken over by garden chroniclerIbn Bassal (fl. 1085 CE) until the Christian conquest in 1085 CE. Ibn Bassal then founded a garden in Seville, most of its plants being collected on a botanical expedition that included Morocco, Persia, Sicily, and Egypt. The medical school ofMontpellier was also founded by Spanish Arab physicians, and by 1250 CE, it included a physic garden, but the site was not given botanic garden status until 1593.[28]
Botanical gardens developed fromphysic gardens, whose main purpose was to cultivateherbs for medical use as well as research and experimentation. Such gardens have a long history. In Europe, for example,Aristotle (384 BCE – 322 BCE) is said to have had a physic garden in theLyceum at Athens, which was used for educational purposes and for the study of botany, and this was inherited, or possibly set up, by his pupilTheophrastus, the "Father of Botany".[29][30] There is some debate among science historians whether this garden was ordered and scientific enough to be considered "botanical"; instead, they attribute the earliest known botanical garden in Europe to the botanist andpharmacologistAntonius Castor, mentioned byPliny the Elder in the 1st century.[31]
The forerunners of modern botanical gardens are generally regarded as being the medieval monastic physic gardens that originated after the decline of theRoman Empire at the time of EmperorCharlemagne (742–789 CE). These contained ahortus, a garden used mostly for vegetables, and another section set aside for specially labelled medicinal plants and this was called theherbularis orhortus medicus—more generally known as a physic garden, and aviridarium or orchard.[32] Such gardens were given impetus by Charlemagne'sCapitulary de Villis, which listed 73 herbs to be used in the physic gardens of his dominions. Many of these had already been introduced to British gardens.[33]Pope Nicholas V set aside part of the Vatican grounds in 1447, for a garden of medicinal plants that were used to promote the teaching of botany, and this was a forerunner to the University gardens at Padua and Pisa established in the 1540s.[34] Certainly the founding of many early botanic gardens was instigated by members of the medical profession.[35]
A 16th-century print of theBotanical Garden of Padua—the oldest academic botanic garden still at its original location
In the 17th century, botanical gardens began their contribution to a deeper scientific curiosity about plants. If a botanical garden is defined by its scientific or academic connection, then the first true botanical gardens were established with the revival of learning that occurred in the EuropeanRenaissance. These were secular gardens attached to universities and medical schools, used as resources for teaching and research. The superintendents of these gardens were often professors of botany with international reputations, a factor that probably contributed to the creation of botany as an independent discipline rather than a descriptive adjunct to medicine.[36]
During the 16th and 17th centuries, the first plants were being imported to these majorWestern European gardens fromEastern Europe and nearbyAsia (which provided manybulbs), and these found a place in the new gardens, where they could be conveniently studied by the plant experts of the day. For example, Asian introductions were described byCarolus Clusius (1526–1609), who was director, in turn, of theBotanical Garden of the University of Vienna andHortus Botanicus Leiden. Many plants were being collected from theNear East, especially bulbous plants fromTurkey. Clusius laid the foundations ofDutch tulip breeding and the bulb industry, and he helped create one of the earliest formal botanical gardens of Europe atLeyden where his detailed planting lists have made it possible to recreate this garden near its original site. Thehortus medicus of Leyden in 1601 was a perfect square divided into quarters for the four continents, but by 1720, though, it was a rambling system of beds, struggling to contain the novelties rushing in,[49] and it became better known as thehortus academicus. HisExoticorum libri decem (1605) is an important survey of exotic plants and animals that is still consulted today.[50]
In the mid to late 17th century, the ParisJardin des Plantes was a centre of interest with the greatest number of new introductions to attract the public. InEngland, theChelsea Physic Garden was founded in 1673 as the "Garden of the Society of Apothecaries". The Chelsea garden had heatedgreenhouses, and in 1723 appointedPhilip Miller (1691–1771) ashead gardener. He had a wide influence on both botany and horticulture, as plants poured into it from around the world. The garden's golden age came in the 18th century, when it became the world's most richly stocked botanical garden. Its seed-exchange programme was established in 1682 and still continues today.[51]
With the increase inmaritime trade, ever more plants were brought back to Europe as trophies from distant lands, and these were triumphantly displayed in the private estates of the wealthy, in commercialnurseries, and in the public botanical gardens. Heated conservatories called "orangeries" became a feature of many botanical gardens.[52]
TheRoyal Botanic Gardens, Kew were founded in 1759, initially as part of the Royal Garden set aside as a physic garden.William Aiton (1741–1793), the first curator, was taught by garden chroniclerPhilip Miller of the Chelsea Physic Garden whose son Charles became first curator of the originalCambridge Botanic Garden (1762).[53] In 1759, the "Physick Garden" was planted, and by 1767, it was claimed that "the Exotick Garden is by far the richest in Europe".[54] Gardens such as the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (1759) andOrotava Acclimatization Garden(in Spanish),Tenerife (1788) and theReal Jardín Botánico de Madrid (1755) were set up to cultivate new species returned from expeditions to the tropics; they also helped found new tropical botanical gardens. From the 1770s, following the example of theFrench andSpanish, amateur collectors were supplemented by official horticultural and botanical plant hunters.[55] These botanical gardens were boosted by the flora being sent back to Europe from various Europeancolonies around the globe.[56]
At this time, British horticulturalists were importing manywoody plants fromBritain's colonies in North America, and the popularity of horticulture had increased enormously, encouraged by the horticultural and botanical collecting expeditions overseas fostered by the directorship ofSir William Jackson Hooker and his keen interest ineconomic botany.[57] At the end of the 18th century, Kew, under the directorship of SirJoseph Banks, enjoyed a golden age of plant hunting, sending out collectors to theSouth African Cape,Australia,Chile,China,Ceylon,Brazil, and elsewhere,[58] and acting as "the great botanical exchange house of theBritish Empire".[59] From its earliest days to the present, Kew has in many ways exemplified botanic garden ideals, and is respected worldwide for the published work of its scientists, the education of horticultural students, its public programmes, and the scientific underpinning of its horticulture.[60]
In 1728,John Bartram foundedBartram's Garden inPhiladelphia, one of the continent's first botanical gardens. The garden is now managed as a historical site that includes a few original and many modern specimens as well as extensive archives and restored historical farm buildings.[61][62]
The large number of plants needing description were listed in garden catalogues; and from 1753Carl Linnaeus established the system ofbinomial nomenclature which greatly facilitated the listing process. Names of plants were authenticated by dried plant specimens mounted on card (ahortus siccus or garden of dried plants) that were stored in buildings calledherbaria, thesetaxonomic research institutions being frequently associated with the botanical gardens, many of which by then had "order beds" to display the classification systems being developed by botanists in the gardens' museums and herbaria. Botanical gardens became scientific collections, asbotanists published their descriptions of the new exotic plants, and these were recorded for posterity in detail by superb botanical illustrations. Botanical gardens effectively dropped their medicinal function in favour of scientific and aesthetic priorities, and the term "botanic garden" came to be more closely associated with the herbarium, library (and later laboratories) housed there than with the living collections – on which little research was undertaken.[63]
The late 18th and early 19th centuries were marked by the establishment of tropical botanical gardens as a tool ofcolonial expansion (for trade and commerce and, secondarily, science) mainly by the British and Dutch, inIndia,South-east Asia and theCaribbean.[64] This was also the time of SirJoseph Banks's botanical collections during CaptainJames Cook'scircumnavigations of the planet and his explorations ofOceania, with plant introductions on a grand scale.[65]
Included in the charter of these gardens was the investigation of the localflora for its economic potential to both the colonists and the local people. Many crop plants were introduced by or through these gardens – often in association with European botanical gardens such as Kew or Amsterdam – and includedcloves,tea,coffee, breadfruit,cinchona,sugar,cotton,palm oil andTheobroma cacao (for chocolate).[64] During these times, the rubber plant was introduced to Singapore.[68] Especially in the tropics, the larger gardens were frequently associated with a herbarium and museum of economy.[69] The Botanical Garden of Peradeniya had considerable influence on the development of agriculture inCeylon where thePara rubber tree (Hevea brasiliensis) was introduced from Kew, which had itself imported the plant fromSouth America.[64] Other examples include cotton from the Chelsea Physic Garden to theProvince of Georgia in 1732 and tea into India by Calcutta Botanic Garden.[70] The transfer ofgermplasm between the temperate and tropical botanical gardens was undoubtedly responsible for the range of agricultural crops currently used in several regions of the tropics.[71]
A large number of civic or municipal botanical gardens were founded in the 19th and 20th centuries. These did not develop scientific facilities or programmes, but the horticultural aspects were strong and the plants often labelled. They were botanical gardens in the sense of building up collections of plants and exchanging seeds with other gardens around the world, although their collection policies were determined by those in day-to-day charge of them. They tended to become little more than beautifully maintained parks and were, indeed, often under general parks administrations.[81]
The second half of the 20th century saw increasingly sophisticated educational, visitor service, and interpretation services. Botanical gardens started to cater for many interests and their displays reflected this, often including botanical exhibits on themes ofevolution,ecology ortaxonomy, horticultural displays of attractiveflowerbeds andherbaceous borders, plants from different parts of the world, special collections of plant groups such asbamboos orroses, and specialist glasshouse collections such as tropical plants,alpine plants,cacti andorchids, as well as the traditional herb gardens and medicinal plants. Specialised gardens like thePalmengarten inFrankfurt, Germany (1869), one of the world's leading orchid andsucculent plant collections, have been very popular.[13] With decreasing financial support from governments, revenue-raising public entertainment increased, including music, art exhibitions, special botanical exhibitions, theatre and film, this being supplemented by the advent of "Friends" organisations and the use of volunteer guides.[82]
Plant conservation and the heritage value of exceptional historic landscapes were treated with a growing sense of urgency through the 20th century. Specialist gardens were sometimes given a separate or adjoining site, to display native and indigenous plants.[2] In the 1970s, gardens became focused on plant conservation. The Botanic Gardens Conservation Secretariat was established by theIUCN and theWorld Conservation Union in 1987 with the aim of coordinating the plant conservation efforts of botanical gardens around the world. It maintains a database of rare and endangered species in botanical gardens' living collections. Many gardens holdex situ conservation collections that preservegenetic variation. These may be held as seeds dried and stored at low temperature, or in tissue culture (such as the KewMillennium Seedbank); as living plants, including those that are of special horticultural, historical or scientific interest (such as those in theNational Plant Collection in the United Kingdom); or by managing and preserving areas of natural vegetation. Collections are often held and cultivated with the intention ofreintroduction to their original habitats.[83]
Botanical gardens have continued to be built in the 21st century, such as the first botanical garden inOman, which is planned to be one of the largest gardens in the world, with the first large-scalecloud forest in a huge glasshouse.[10][84] Development of botanical gardens in China over recent years has been remarkable, including theHainan Botanical Garden of Tropical Economic Plants at Guangzhou,[85]South China Botanical Garden theXishuangbanna Botanical Garden of Tropical Plants and theXiamen Botanic Garden.[86] Indeveloped countries, on the other hand, many have closed for lack of financial support, especially those attached to universities.[2] ThePalestine Museum of Natural History has a botanic garden, which has been described as a site of nation-building and resistance by Silvia Hassouna.[87]
TheCenter for Plant Conservation atSt Louis, Missouri, coordinates the conservation of native North American species.[88] The 2006North American Botanic Garden Strategy for Plant Conservation sets out its goals to document and conserve plant diversity, to use that diversity sustainably, to educate the public about plant diversity, build conservation capacity, and to build support for the strategy itself.[89]
A 2024 review in a special issue of theJournal of Zoological and Botanical Gardens on the sustainability of botanic gardens noted their increasing roles in conservation and research, and the many new gardens created since 1950. In its view, the gardens are being "reinvent[ed]" to serve the goals of conservation, sustainability, and social engagement. It observes that historically, the gardens emerged in an era that saw both the growth of modern science and the colonial era. In response, the gardens have engaged in decolonising and in "new socio-environmental missions". Finally, it attempts to view the gardens on a global scale.[90] A 2023 historical review by Chinese botanists similarly notes the long history of botanical gardens from the medicinal gardens of the first universities inRenaissance Europe, and from China's ancientShennong herbal garden tradition. The gardens have in its view continuously adapted to new demands in a changing environment, coming to serve the "core mission ofex situ conservation".[91]
Botanical gardens must find a compromise between the need for peace and seclusion, while at the same time satisfying the public need for information and visitor services that include restaurants, information centres and sales areas that bring with them rubbish, noise, andhyperactivity. Attractivelandscaping and planting design sometimes compete with scientific interests — with science now often taking second place. Some gardens are now heritage landscapes that are subject to constant demand for new exhibits and exemplary environmental management.[92]
^The termsbotanic andbotanical andgarden orgardens are used more-or-less interchangeably, although the wordbotanic is generally reserved for the earlier, more traditional gardens.
^Precisely dating the foundation of botanical gardens is often difficult because government decrees may be issued some time before land is acquired and planting begins, or existing gardens may be relocated to new sites, or previously existing gardens may be taken over and converted.
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