Why botanical gardens are established?

In principle, its function is to maintain documented collections of living plants for scientific research, conservation, exhibition and education, although this will depend on the resources available and the special interests pursued in each particular garden. The layout of the botanical garden must balance an aesthetic presentation for educational purposes and spaces open to visitors, but useful for botanists and conservationists, although most botanical field research is carried out in environments other than public botanical gardens.

botanical gardens

usually host hybridization experiments and the development of new plant species (cultivars). In the 18th century, it became fashionable to build gardens according to the Carl Linnaeus classification system, which facilitated comparisons within plant families.

In addition, the distinctions between more rustic English gardens and more geometric and orderly French gardens have also influenced American designers of botanical gardens. In addition, American gardens that feature species from around the world often group them by origin, sometimes designing each section to resemble the native area. Alternatively, plants are sometimes grouped according to the geological features in which they are found. However, American botanical gardens, especially those further north, must take into account seasonal changes when planning their design, and sometimes close during the winter.

European botanical gardens originated in the Renaissance during the 16th century. During the Middle Ages, botanical research was largely hampered by the inability of manuscripts to accurately represent plants, since each copy was made anew. The invention of the printing press in the 1450s, combined with the recovery of ancient botanical texts, allowed the study of botany to flourish in the late 15th and 16th centuries. Although other ephemeral attempts were made in the 19th century to establish botanical gardens, it wasn't until 1859 that another public and non-governmental (and the oldest) botanical garden was successfully opened in the United States.

The Missouri Botanical Garden, which was created in 1859 by Henry Shaw, an English merchant motivated to create a garden on his land in St. Louis on a trip to London in 1851, which included a visit to the famous Royal Botanic Garden in Kew. The Missouri Botanical Garden, which operates into the 21st century, is home to the Center for Plant Conservation, a coalition of more than thirty botanical gardens across the country that seeks to preserve endangered Native American plants. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, there was a marked increase in the number of public botanical gardens, many of them affiliated with universities or other research centers.

Some were bequeathed to the public by devoted fans. The botanical gardens started during this period include the Arnold Arboretum (187), the New York Botanical Garden (189), the Smith College Botanical Garden (1893-89), the Brooklyn Botanical Garden (191), the Huntington Botanical Garden (191), the Longwood Gardens (192) and the University of California. Berkeley Botanical Garden (192). The suburbanization of the American landscape in the 20th century has threatened the prominent and viability of public botanical gardens, especially those in cities.

The urban renewal projects of the 1970s and 1980s, when combined with economic growth, perhaps resulted in an urban revival of the 1990s, in which botanical gardens flourished again. While botanical gardens continue to be important for recreation and education, the most important trend in botanical gardens around the world during the 20th century has been the growing awareness of their potential to aid conservation efforts. Industrialization, pollution, urbanization, suburbanization, the destruction of tropical forests, climate change and the spread of invasive species as a result of globalization are currently threatening biodiversity, as plant species become extinct every day. Botanical gardens can offer ex situ conservation of species that are being expelled from their original habitats.

The first attempt to involve botanical gardens around the world in coordinated conservation efforts was made in 1987 with the founding of the Secretariat for the Conservation of Botanical Gardens. At the beginning of the 21st century, the Plant Conservation Center houses 580 rare species of Native Americans. However, according to their statistics, 730 of the 20,000 native American plant species are now officially endangered, while some 4,000 are considered threatened. It seems that conservation has become the most important research function of botanical gardens today.

There are many botanical gardens in the United States, most of which were created to provide a natural environment for people to enjoy and a laboratory for scholars to study plant diversity. They generally contain several botanical species along with libraries, herbaria, museums, and educational and research facilities. Botanical gardens, which are traditionally distinguished by the use of some type of classification system, use the science of taxonomy to organize and compare the plants and herbal material collected by them. This practice has allowed botanical gardens to serve as acclimation stations through which plants native to one part of the world can be established and presented to the public in other parts of the world.

Recent developments, such as the emphasis on horticulture and the inclusion of greenhouses and conservatories, have expanded the scientific and recreational appeal of botanical gardens across the country. Although there are records of a botanical garden in Cambridge, Massachusetts, as early as 1672, the Missouri Botanical Garden, founded in 1859, was the first in the United States to follow the European model that was developed in the 17th and 18th centuries. The founding took place exactly when the parks movement began in the United States; botanical gardens were soon established in New York and Philadelphia in 1891, and in Brooklyn in 1910, in concert with parks designed by men like Frederick Law, Olmstead and Calvert Vaux. Most of these new American botanical gardens combined scientific efforts with a more civic purpose that encouraged public use and enjoyment of the gardens.

They also tended to have a horticultural emphasis rather than purely scientific, and involved the collection and maintenance of several plants and the exchange of seeds with other botanical gardens around the world, using the global Index Seminum system. During the 20th century, several private botanical gardens were created that did not conform to the dominant international tradition. These gardens are often not involved in seed exchange or other global networks, and prefer to focus on educational and recreational programs with strong support from their local community. Others The Missouri and New York Botanical Gardens are among the oldest and most internationally acclaimed of the more than 100 botanical gardens listed in the United States.

Also worth mentioning are several other botanical gardens that specialize in particular areas. The Arnold Arboretum at Harvard University, landscaped between 1872 and 1898 on 101 hectares (250 acres) of land outside Boston, focuses on trees and shrubs with a current collection of approximately 6200 tree species.

Brooklyn's smaller Botanical

Garden (19) and the Strybing Arboretum in San Francisco (193) emphasize the educational purpose of their diverse collections. The Huntington Garden in San Marino, Los Angeles (190), is famous for its unusual combination of ornamental and desert gardens, while the Fairchild Tropical Garden in Miami (193) is an important collection of tropical species.

National Arboretum, established on 415 acres (168 hectares) of land in Washington, DC, DC. These represent a small selection of the botanical gardens that have flourished in the United States throughout the 20th century. Botanical gardens and arboretums are living museums. Its collections are plants and, like any museum specimen, they are carefully identified, accessed, labeled and exhibited for public enjoyment and education.

They offer a great opportunity for both professional and interested audiences to learn more about the diverse world of plants, how to cultivate them and the benefits they offer to society. Botanical gardens and arboretums can be based on a design that brings together trees, shrubs and herbaceous plants in their respective taxonomic groups. Or, they can be grouped according to the region of the world where the plant grows in its native environment. Often, plants are used to create small landscaped display gardens, such as a rhododendron garden, wildflowers, medicinal or Japanese-style flowers, or examples of gardens for the home landscape.

In addition to their outdoor gardens and plant collections, botanical gardens and arboretums may include herbaria for the collection and conservation of dry plant specimens, libraries, research laboratories, production and exhibition greenhouses, conservatories for indoor display of tropical plants, educational classrooms, areas for interpretive exhibitions and public services, such as a gift shop or restaurant. These diverse resources and facilities require a qualified staff of workers. The most important consideration in maintaining botanical gardens and arboretums are good plant care practices. Horticulturists, trained in these practices, spend time on everything from lawn maintenance to systematic pruning of tree and shrub collections.

Horticulturists are also responsible for harvesting new plants, propagating seeds and cuttings, and keeping accurate records of growth and health characteristics. William Satchwell Leney according to Hugh Reinagle, View of the New York State Botanical Garden, in David Hosack, Hortus Elginensis (181), frontispiece. While purists insist that botanical gardens should only serve scientific purposes, most botanical gardens in the United States have a decidedly community-oriented approach that sets them apart from the mainstream international tradition. Smith College, which has a strong tradition in botanical sciences, considers its entire campus, redesigned in 1893 by Frederick Law Olmsted, to be an arboretum, in addition to the botanical garden, which officially opened in 1894. It was largely based on Italian and French models, but included an exhibition: gardens showcasing species from around the world.

Although heavily damaged by a 1938 hurricane, it remains one of the most outstanding American gardens, known for its scientific research, plant development, extensive herbarium and East Asian collections. Before the gardens were founded, the estate known as Peirce Farm had a remarkable collection of trees, which Pierre du Pont bought. More recently, a large Japanese garden has been added to the various styles that attract both experts and novices to the Missouri Botanical Garden. During the 16th century, the study and use of herbs for medicinal purposes motivated the founding of botanical gardens.

In 2004, Shaw's garden consisted of an urban garden of approximately thirty hectares (seventy acres), as well as an arboretum of about 1500 acres (607 hectares) on the outskirts of the city with several species of trees and shrubs, and a tropical resort in Panama. However, other nursery gardens were a spectacular failure, in particular the Elgin Botanical Garden, founded in Manhattan by physician David Hosack in 1801. Many other gardens have occupied an important place in the scientific study of plant diversity, as well as in the introduction and evaluation of plants for agriculture. horticulture, forestry and medicine. Andrew Parmentier's & Horticultural Botanical Garden, in Brooklyn, Long Island, two miles from New York City, c.

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