The Missouri Botanical Garden is a

botanical garden A botanical garden or botanic gardenThe terms ''botanic'' and ''botanical'' and ''garden'' or ''gardens'' are used more-or-less interchangeably, although the word ''botanic'' is generally reserved for the earlier, more traditional gardens, an ...

located at 4344 Shaw Boulevard in

St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...

. It is also known informally as Shaw's Garden for founder and philanthropist Henry Shaw. Its herbarium, with more than 6.6 million specimens, is the second largest in North America, behind that of the

New York Botanical Garden The New York Botanical Garden (NYBG) is a botanical garden at Bronx Park in the Bronx, New York City. Established in 1891, it is located on a site that contains a landscape with over one million living plants; the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory, ...

. The '' Index Herbariorum'' code assigned to the herbarium is MO and it is used when citing housed specimens.

History

The land that is currently the Missouri Botanical Garden was previously the land of businessman Henry Shaw. Founded in 1859, the Missouri Botanical Garden is one of the oldest botanical institutions in the United States and a

National Historic Landmark A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Only some 2,500 (~3%) of over 90,000 places listed ...

. It is also listed in the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

. In 1983, the botanical garden was added as the fourth subdistrict of the

Metropolitan Zoological Park and Museum District The Metropolitan Zoological Park and Museum District or ZMD is a cultural tax district in St. Louis City and St. Louis County, Missouri. The district has five subdistricts: the St. Louis Art Museum, St. Louis Zoo, St. Louis Science Center, Mis ...

. The garden is a center for botanical research and science education of international repute, as well as an oasis in the city of St. Louis, with of horticultural display. It includes a Japanese strolling garden named Seiwa-en; the Climatron

geodesic dome A geodesic dome is a hemispherical thin-shell structure (lattice-shell) based on a geodesic polyhedron. The triangular elements of the dome are structurally rigid and distribute the structural stress throughout the structure, making geodesic do ...

conservatory; a children's garden, including a pioneer village; a playground; a fountain area and a water locking system, somewhat similar to the locking system at the

Panama Canal The Panama Canal ( es, Canal de Panamá, link=no) is an artificial waterway in Panama that connects the Atlantic Ocean with the Pacific Ocean and divides North and South America. The canal cuts across the Isthmus of Panama and is a condui ...

; an Osage camp; and Henry Shaw's original 1850 estate home. It is adjacent to

Tower Grove Park Tower Grove Park is a municipal park in the city of St. Louis, Missouri. Most of its land was donated to the city by Henry Shaw in 1868. It is on 289 acres (1.17 km²) adjacent to the Missouri Botanical Garden, another of Shaw's legacies. I ...

, another of Shaw's legacies. For part of 2006, the Missouri Botanical Garden featured "Glass in the Garden", with glass sculptures by Dale Chihuly placed throughout the garden. Four pieces were purchased to remain at the gardens. In 2008 sculptures of the French artist

Niki de Saint Phalle Niki de Saint Phalle (; born Catherine Marie-Agnès Fal de Saint Phalle; 29 October 193021 May 2002) was a French-American sculptor, painter, filmmaker, and author of colorful hand-illustrated books. Widely noted as one of the few female monume ...

were placed throughout the garden. In 2009, the 150th anniversary of the garden was celebrated, including a floral clock display. After 40 years of service to the garden, Dr. Peter Raven retired from his presidential post on September 1, 2010. Dr. Peter Wyse Jackson replaced him as President.

Leaders of the garden

* Henry Shaw (founder) until his death in 1889 *

William Trelease William Trelease (February 22, 1857 – January 1, 1945) was an American botanist, entomologist, explorer, writer and educator. This botanist is denoted by the author abbreviation Trel. when citing a botanical name. Trelease was born in Mount ...

, director, 1889 to 1912 *

George Thomas Moore George Thomas Moore (1871–1956) was a U.S. botanist, who specialised in phycology, the study of algae. Moore was the director of the Missouri Botanical Garden in St. Louis, Missouri from 1912 to 1953. Moore was born on February 23, 1871, ...

, director, 1912 to 1953 *

Edgar Anderson Edgar Shannon Anderson (November 9, 1897 – June 18, 1969) was an American botanist. He introduced the term ''introgressive hybridization'' and his 1949 book of that title was an original and important contribution to botanical genetics. HIs wo ...

, director, 1954 to 1957 *

Frits Warmolt Went Frits Warmolt Went (May 18, 1903 – May 1, 1990) was a Dutch biologist whose 1928 experiment demonstrated the existence of auxin in plants. Went's father was the prominent Dutch botanist F.A.F.C. Went. After graduating from the University of ...

, director, 1958 to 1963
David Gates
director, 1965 to 1971 *

Peter H. Raven Peter Hamilton Raven (born June 13, 1936) is an American botanist and environmentalist, notable as the longtime director, now President Emeritus, of the Missouri Botanical Garden. Early life On June 13, 1936, Raven was born in Shanghai, Chi ...

, director, 1971 to 2006; president and director, 2006 to 2010 * Peter Wyse Jackson, president, appointed 2010

Cultural festivals

The garden is a place for many annual cultural festivals, such as the Japanese Festival and the Chinese Culture Days by the St. Louis Chinese Culture Days Committee. During this time, there are showcases of the culture's botanics as well as cultural arts, crafts, music and food. The Japanese Festival features sumo wrestling,

taiko are a broad range of Japanese percussion instruments. In Japanese, the term refers to any kind of drum, but outside Japan, it is used specifically to refer to any of the various Japanese drums called and to the form of ensemble drumming ...

drumming, koma-mawashi top spinning, and

kimono The is a traditional Japanese garment and the national dress of Japan. The kimono is a wrapped-front garment with square sleeves and a rectangular body, and is worn left side wrapped over right, unless the wearer is deceased. The kimono ...

fashion shows. The garden is known for its bonsai growing, which can be seen all year round but is highlighted during the multiple Asian festivals.

Gardens

Major garden features include: * Tower Grove House (1849) and Herb Garden – Shaw's Victorian country house, designed by prominent local architect George I. Barnett in the

Italianate The Italianate style was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. Like Palladianism and Neoclassicism, the Italianate style drew its inspiration from the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century Italian ...

style * ''Victory of Science over Ignorance'' – marble statue by Carlo Nicoli, a copy of the original (1859) by Vincenzo Consani in the

Pitti Palace The Palazzo Pitti (), in English sometimes called the Pitti Palace, is a vast, mainly Renaissance, palace in Florence, Italy. It is situated on the south side of the River Arno, a short distance from the Ponte Vecchio. The core of the present ...

Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany Regions of Italy, region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilan ...

* Linnean House (1882) – reputedly the oldest continually operated greenhouse west of the

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it fl ...

; originally Shaw's

orangery An orangery or orangerie was a room or a dedicated building on the grounds of fashionable residences of Northern Europe from the 17th to the 19th centuries where orange and other fruit trees were protected during the winter, as a very lar ...

, in the late 1930s converted to house mostly

camellia ''Camellia'' (pronounced or ) is a genus of flowering plants in the family Theaceae. They are found in eastern and southern Asia, from the Himalayas east to Japan and Indonesia. There are more than 220 described species, with some controv ...

s * Gladney Rose Garden (1915) – circular rose garden with arbors *

Climatron The Climatron is a greenhouse enclosed in a geodesic dome that is part of the Missouri Botanical Garden in St. Louis. Initiated by then Garden director Frits W. Went, the dome is the world's first completely air-conditioned greenhouse and the f ...

(1960) and Reflecting Pools – world's first

greenhouse, designed by architect and engineer Thomas C. Howard of Synergetics, Inc; lowland rain forest with approximately 1500 plants * English Woodland Garden (1976) –

aconite Aconite may refer to: *'' Aconitum'', a plant genus containing the monkshoods *Aconitine Aconitine is an alkaloid toxin produced by various plant species belonging to the genus ''Aconitum'' (family Ranunculaceae), known also commonly by the na ...

, azaleas, bluebells,

dogwood ''Cornus'' is a genus of about 30–60 species of woody plants in the family Cornaceae, commonly known as dogwoods, which can generally be distinguished by their blossoms, berries, and distinctive bark. Most are deciduous trees or shru ...

hosta ''Hosta'' (, syn. ''Funkia'') is a genus of plants commonly known as hostas, plantain lilies and occasionally by the Japanese name gibōshi. Hostas are widely cultivated as shade-tolerant foliage plants. The genus is currently placed in the fa ...

trillium ''Trillium'' (trillium, wakerobin, toadshade, tri flower, birthroot, birthwort, and sometimes "wood lily") is a genus of about fifty flowering plant species in the family Melanthiaceae. ''Trillium'' species are native to temperate regions of No ...

, and others beneath the tree canopy * Seiwa-en Japanese Garden (1977) – ''chisen kaiyu-shiki'' (wet strolling garden) with lawns and path set around a central lake, designed by

Koichi Kawana Koichi Kawana ( Japanese: 川名孝一, born March 16, 1930 in Hokkaido – September 13, 1990) was a post-war Japanese American garden designer, landscape architect and teacher. He designed gardens in San Diego, Los Angeles, Denver, Colorado, Chica ...

; the largest

Japanese Garden are traditional gardens whose designs are accompanied by Japanese aesthetics and philosophical ideas, avoid artificial ornamentation, and highlight the natural landscape. Plants and worn, aged materials are generally used by Japanese garden desi ...

in North America * Grigg Nanjing Friendship Chinese Garden (1995) – designed by architect Yong Pan; features (gifts from sister city

Nanjing Nanjing (; , Mandarin pronunciation: ), alternately romanized as Nanking, is the capital of Jiangsu province of the People's Republic of China. It is a sub-provincial city, a megacity, and the second largest city in the East China region. T ...

) a

moon gate A moon gate () is a circular opening in a garden wall that acts as a pedestrian passageway and is a traditional architectural element in Chinese gardens. The gates serve as an inviting entrance into gardens of the rich upper class in China. T ...

, lotus gate, pavilion, and

Chinese scholar's rocks ''Gongshi'' (), also known as scholar's rocks, are naturally occurring or shaped rocks which are traditionally appreciated by Chinese scholars.Metropolitan Museum of Art "The World of Scholars' Rocks Gardens, Studios, and Paintings" retrieved ...

from

Lake Tai Taihu (), also known as Lake Tai or Lake Taihu, is a lake in the Yangtze Delta and one of the largest freshwater lakes in China. The lake is in Jiangsu province and a significant part of its southern shore forms its border with Zhejiang. Wi ...

* Blanke Boxwood Garden (1996) – walled ''

parterre A ''parterre'' is a part of a formal garden constructed on a level substrate, consisting of symmetrical patterns, made up by plant beds, low hedges or coloured gravels, which are separated and connected by paths. Typically it was the part of ...

'' with a fine

boxwood ''Buxus'' is a genus of about seventy species in the family Buxaceae. Common names include box or boxwood. The boxes are native to western and southern Europe, southwest, southern and eastern Asia, Africa, Madagascar, northernmost South ...

collection * Strassenfest German Garden (2000) – flora native to Germany and Central Europe and a bust of botanist and Henry Shaw's scientific advisor George Engelmann (sculpted by

Paul Granlund Paul T. Granlund (October 6, 1925, Minneapolis, Minnesota – September 15, 2003, Mankato, Minnesota) was an American sculptor. His creative career spanned more than 50 years and more than 650 different works. Most of his work is figurative ...

) *

Biblical garden Biblical gardens are Horticulture, cultivated collections of plants that are named in the Bible. They are a type of theme garden that botanical gardens, public parks, and private gardeners maintain. They are grown in many parts of the world, with ma ...

featuring date palm,

pomegranate The pomegranate (''Punica granatum'') is a fruit-bearing deciduous shrub in the family Lythraceae, subfamily Punicoideae, that grows between tall. The pomegranate was originally described throughout the Mediterranean Basin, Mediterranean re ...

fig The fig is the edible fruit of ''Ficus carica'', a species of small tree in the flowering plant family Moraceae. Native to the Mediterranean and western Asia, it has been cultivated since ancient times and is now widely grown throughout the world ...

and olive trees,

caper ''Capparis spinosa'', the caper bush, also called Flinders rose, is a perennial plant that bears rounded, fleshy leaves and large white to pinkish-white flowers. The plant is best known for the edible flower buds (capers), used as a seasoning ...

mint MiNT is Now TOS (MiNT) is a free software alternative operating system kernel for the Atari ST system and its successors. It is a multi-tasking alternative to TOS and MagiC. Together with the free system components fVDI device drivers, XaA ...

citron The citron (''Citrus medica''), historically cedrate, is a large fragrant citrus fruit with a thick rind. It is said to resemble a 'huge, rough lemon'. It is one of the original citrus fruits from which all other citrus types developed throu ...

and other plants mentioned in the

Bible The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts ...

* Ottoman garden with water features and xeriscape

Popular culture

Douglas Trumbull Douglas Hunt Trumbull (; April 8, 1942 – February 7, 2022) was an American film director and innovative visual effects supervisor. He pioneered methods in special effects and created scenes for '' 2001: A Space Odyssey'', ''Close Encounters ...

, the director of the 1972

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel uni ...

classic film '' Silent Running'', stated that the geodesic domes on the spaceship ''Valley Forge'' were based on the Missouri Botanical Garden's Climatron dome. File:Missouri Botanical Garden - 2017-05-08.jpg, A yatsu-hashi bridge in the garden. Image:Missouribonsaigarden.jpg, Bonsai Image:Missouri Botanical Garden - Plan, drawn 1974-1977.jpg, Site plan, as of 1974–1977 Image:Henry Shaw Mausoleum.jpg, Henry Shaw's mausoleum is located in the gardens. File:Botanical Garden, Saint Louis.jpg, Seiwa-en File:Fountain at Missouri Botanical Garden.jpg, A fountain File:Children's area, Missouri Botanical Garden.jpg, Part of the children's area File:Statue of George Washington Carver at Missouri Botanical Garden.jpg, A statue of George Washington Carver File:Children's water play area, Missouri Botanical Garden.jpg, Part of the children's water play area

Butterfly House

Missouri Botanical Garden also operates the Sophia M. Sachs Butterfly House in

Chesterfield Chesterfield may refer to: Places Canada * Rural Municipality of Chesterfield No. 261, Saskatchewan * Chesterfield Inlet, Nunavut United Kingdom * Chesterfield, Derbyshire, a market town in England ** Chesterfield (UK Parliament constitue ...

. The Butterfly House includes an indoor butterfly conservatory as well as an outdoor butterfly garden.

EarthWays Center

The EarthWays Center is a group at the Missouri Botanical Garden that provides resources on and educates the public about green practices, renewable energy, energy efficiency, and other sustainability matters.

Shaw Nature Reserve

The Shaw Nature Reserve was started by the Missouri Botanical Garden in 1925 as a place to store plants away from the pollution of the city. The air in St. Louis later cleared up, and the reserve has continued to be open to the public for enjoyment, research, and education ever since. The reserve is located in

Gray Summit, Missouri Gray Summit is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Franklin County, Missouri, United States. The population was 2,701 at the 2010 census. Also called "Gray's Summit", it was founded by Daniel Gray of New York, who bu ...

, away from the city.

The Plant List

The Plant List is an

Internet encyclopedia project An encyclopedia (American English) or encyclopædia (British English) is a reference work or compendium providing summaries of knowledge either general or special to a particular field or discipline. Encyclopedias are divided into articles ...

to compile a comprehensive list of botanical nomenclature, created by the

Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew is a non-departmental public body in the United Kingdom sponsored by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. An internationally important botanical research and education institution, it employs 1,10 ...

, and the Missouri Botanical Garden. The Plant List has 1,040,426 scientific plant names of species rank, of which 298,900 are accepted species names. In addition, the list has 620 plant families and 16,167 plant genera.

Living Earth Collaborative

In September 2017 the Missouri Botanical Garden teamed up with the St. Louis Zoo and

Washington University in St. Louis Washington University in St. Louis (WashU or WUSTL) is a private research university with its main campus in St. Louis County, and Clayton, Missouri. Founded in 1853, the university is named after George Washington. Washington University is r ...

in a conservation effort known as the Living Earth Collaborative. The collaborative, run by

Washington University Washington University in St. Louis (WashU or WUSTL) is a private research university with its main campus in St. Louis County, and Clayton, Missouri. Founded in 1853, the university is named after George Washington. Washington University is r ...

scientist

Jonathan Losos Jonathan B. Losos (born December 7, 1961, in St. Louis County, Missouri) is an American evolutionary biologist and Herpetologist. Life Losos studied biology at Harvard University, from which he received a Bachelor's degree in 1984. Later on, in 1 ...

, seeks to promote further understanding of the ways humans can help to preserve the varied natural environments that allow plants, animals and microbes to survive and thrive.

Sponsorship

Monsanto The Monsanto Company () was an American agrochemical and agricultural biotechnology corporation founded in 1901 and headquartered in Creve Coeur, Missouri. Monsanto's best known product is Roundup, a glyphosate-based herbicide, developed in ...

had donated $10 million to the Missouri Botanical Garden since the 1970s, which named its 1998 plant science facility the "Monsanto Center". The center has since been renamed to the "Bayer Center" following Monsanto's acquisition by Bayer.No official announcements or press, but the difference can be seen on the Garden's website before and after Monsanto acquisition by Bayer (difference in name in caption for second photo); before: https://web.archive.org/web/20130822224927/https://www.missouribotanicalgarden.org/plant-science/plant-science/resources/herbarium.aspx , after: https://web.archive.org/web/20210604074747/https://www.missouribotanicalgarden.org/plant-science/plant-science/resources/herbarium.aspx .

Publications

* ''

Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden The ''Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden'' is a long-established major peer-reviewed journal of botany, established in 1914 by the Missouri Botanical Garden, under the directorship of botanist and phycologist, George Thomas Moore, and still p ...

'' *
Novon: A Journal for Botanical Nomenclature
'

References

External links

* *
Climatron history and architectureThe Japanese GardenTower Grove ParkBotanicus, Digital library
{{authority control

Botanical gardens in Missouri {{Commons cat, Botanical gardens in Missouri Missouri Botanical Botany, also called , plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialise ...

Culture of St. Louis 1859 establishments in Missouri National Historic Landmarks in Missouri Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Missouri Buildings and structures in St. Louis

Botanical Garden A botanical garden or botanic gardenThe terms ''botanic'' and ''botanical'' and ''garden'' or ''gardens'' are used more-or-less interchangeably, although the word ''botanic'' is generally reserved for the earlier, more traditional gardens, an ...

Geography of St. Louis Botanical research institutes National Register of Historic Places in St. Louis Chinese gardens Woodland gardens