The Botanischer Garten Jena (4.5 hectares) is the second oldest

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 ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

, maintained by the

University of Jena The University of Jena, officially the Friedrich Schiller University Jena (german: Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena, abbreviated FSU, shortened form ''Uni Jena''), is a public research university located in Jena, Thuringia, Germany. The un ...

and located at Fürstengraben 26,

Jena Jena () is a German city and the second largest city in Thuringia. Together with the nearby cities of Erfurt and Weimar, it forms the central metropolitan area of Thuringia with approximately 500,000 inhabitants, while the city itself has a popu ...

Thuringia Thuringia (; german: Thüringen ), officially the Free State of Thuringia ( ), is a state of central Germany, covering , the sixth smallest of the sixteen German states. It has a population of about 2.1 million. Erfurt is the capital and larg ...

. It is open daily; an admission fee is charged. The garden was first established in 1586 as a ''hortus medicus'', six years after the establishment of the Botanical Garden in Leipzig in 1580. In 1630 it was rearranged and expanded significantly by Professor

Werner Rolfinck Werner Rolfinck (15 November 1599 – 6 May 1673) was a German physician, scientist and botanist. He was a medical student in Leiden, Oxford, Paris, and Padua. Biography Rolfinck earned his master's degree at the University of Wittenberg under ...

who had previously studied at the

Orto botanico di Padova The Orto Botanico di Padova is a botanical garden in Padua, in the northeastern part of Italy. Founded in 1545 by the Venetian Republic, it is the world's oldest academic botanical garden that is still in its original location. The garden – af ...

(founded 1545). In 1640 a second section (1.3 hectares in area, north of the city walls) was donated, and a catalog from 1659 documents over 1300 plants in the two gardens. In 1662 the original garden was expanded, with the first heated greenhouse added in 1674, at which time the garden first began to maintain a collection of tropical plants. In 1770 the garden introduced

Linnean taxonomy Linnaean taxonomy can mean either of two related concepts: # The particular form of biological classification (taxonomy) set up by Carl Linnaeus, as set forth in his ''Systema Naturae'' (1735) and subsequent works. In the taxonomy of Linnaeus t ...

, and in 1776

Goethe Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German poet, playwright, novelist, scientist, statesman, theatre director, and critic. His works include plays, poetry, literature, and aesthetic criticism, as well as treat ...

began his association with the garden and helped organize the Jena Institute of botany; over subsequent decades he often studied botany and wrote poems in the garden. Although the garden area was only 1.3 hectares at this time, purchases recorded in 1794 include ''

Buxus sempervirens ''Buxus sempervirens'', the common box, European box, or boxwood, is a species of flowering plant in the genus ''Buxus'', native to western and southern Europe, northwest Africa, and southwest Asia, from southern England south to northern Morocco ...

'', ''

Juniperus sabina ''Juniperus sabina'', the savin juniper or savin, is a species of juniper native to the mountains of central and southern Europe and western and central Asia, from Spain to eastern Siberia, typically growing at altitudes of .Farjon, A. (2005). ' ...

'', ''

Periploca graeca ''Periploca graeca'', the silkvine, is an ornamental plant in the family Apocynaceae. It is native to southern Europe and the Middle East, and is sparingly naturalized in scattered locations in the eastern United States The United State ...

'', ''

Sambucus racemosa ''Sambucus racemosa'' is a species of elderberry known by the common names red elderberry and red-berried elder. Distribution and habitat It is native to Europe, northern temperate Asia, and North America across Canada and the United States. It ...

'', and ''

Thuja occidentalis ''Thuja occidentalis'', also known as northern white-cedar, eastern white-cedar, or arborvitae, is an evergreen coniferous tree, in the cypress family Cupressaceae, which is native to eastern Canada and much of the north-central and northeastern ...

''. Several years later, additional purchases included

amaryllis ''Amaryllis'' () is the only genus in the subtribe Amaryllidinae (tribe Amaryllideae). It is a small genus of flowering bulbs, with two species. The better known of the two, ''Amaryllis belladonna'', is a native of the Western Cape region of S ...

cacti A cactus (, or less commonly, cactus) is a member of the plant family Cactaceae, a family comprising about 127 genera with some 1750 known species of the order Caryophyllales. The word ''cactus'' derives, through Latin, from the Ancient Greek ...

, succulent ''

Euphorbia ''Euphorbia'' is a very large and diverse genus of flowering plants, commonly called spurge, in the family Euphorbiaceae. "Euphorbia" is sometimes used in ordinary English to collectively refer to all members of Euphorbiaceae (in deference to t ...

'', ''

Pelargonium ''Pelargonium'' () is a genus of flowering plants that includes about 280 species of perennials, succulents, and shrubs, commonly called geraniums, pelargoniums, or storksbills. '' Geranium'' is also the botanical name and common name of a separ ...

'', and ''

Zantedeschia ''Zantedeschia'' is a genus of eight species of herbaceous, perennial, flowering plants in the family Araceae, native to southern Africa from South Africa north to Malawi. The genus has been introduced on all continents except Antarctica. Commo ...

''. The garden's first published catalog issued in 1795. Unfortunately, the garden was severely damaged in 1806 in the Napoleonic

Battle of Jena-Auerstedt A battle is an occurrence of combat in warfare between opposing military units of any number or size. A war usually consists of multiple battles. In general, a battle is a military engagement that is well defined in duration, area, and force ...

, and its recovery was long and slow. By 1819 the garden contained only some 50 potted plants in one greenhouse and approximately 200 outdoor plants. However, in 1820 an additional greenhouse was constructed, and the existing greenhouses reorganized to become an

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 large ...

, palm house, and cold house. The garden was thoroughly reworked between 1877 and 1879, after which it contained 2020

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

from 85

families Family (from la, familia) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its members and of society. Ideall ...

as well as a medicinal garden and 13 groups of potted plants from geographically distinct regions. As of 1966 this number had grown substantially to about 2000 families, to which were added a further 300 families (more than 3000 species) in a new

alpine plant Alpine plants are plants that grow in an alpine climate, which occurs at high elevation and above the tree line. There are many different plant species and taxa that grow as a plant community in these alpine tundra. These include perennial grasses, ...

collection. Today the garden contains about 12,000 plants. Its outdoor areas include an

arboretum An arboretum (plural: arboreta) in a general sense is a botanical collection composed exclusively of trees of a variety of species. Originally mostly created as a section in a larger garden or park for specimens of mostly non-local species, man ...

containing about 900 species of deciduous and coniferous trees and shrubs; an

alpine garden An alpine garden (or alpinarium, alpinum) is a domestic or botanical garden, or more often a part of a larger garden, specializing in the collection and cultivation of alpine plants growing naturally at high altitudes around the world, such as in ...

representing approximately 2,500 species; a systematic garden organized by contemporary taxonomy; a collection of medicinal and useful plants; a small hill and pond; and a collection of

rhododendron ''Rhododendron'' (; from Ancient Greek ''rhódon'' "rose" and ''déndron'' "tree") is a very large genus of about 1,024 species of woody plants in the heath family (Ericaceae). They can be either evergreen or deciduous. Most species are nati ...

rose A rose is either a woody perennial flowering plant of the genus ''Rosa'' (), in the family Rosaceae (), or the flower it bears. There are over three hundred species and tens of thousands of cultivars. They form a group of plants that can be ...

s, and

dahlia Dahlia (, ) is a genus of bushy, tuberous, herbaceous perennial plants native to Mexico and Central America. A member of the Asteraceae (former name: Compositae) family of dicotyledonous plants, its garden relatives thus include the sunflower, ...

s. Its five greenhouses are as follows:

cactus A cactus (, or less commonly, cactus) is a member of the plant family Cactaceae, a family comprising about 127 genera with some 1750 known species of the order Caryophyllales. The word ''cactus'' derives, through Latin, from the Ancient Greek ...

and

succulent In botany, succulent plants, also known as succulents, are plants with parts that are thickened, fleshy, and engorged, usually to retain water in arid climates or soil conditions. The word ''succulent'' comes from the Latin word ''sucus'', meani ...

house; cold house for the transitional zone between

tropics The tropics are the regions of Earth surrounding the Equator. They are defined in latitude by the Tropic of Cancer in the Northern Hemisphere at N and the Tropic of Capricorn in the Southern Hemisphere at S. The tropics are also referred to ...

and

subtropics The subtropical zones or subtropics are geographical and climate zones to the north and south of the tropics. Geographically part of the temperate zones of both hemispheres, they cover the middle latitudes from to approximately 35° north and ...

; palm and tropical house; "evolution" house with ancient plant forms including

cycad Cycads are seed plants that typically have a stout and woody (ligneous) trunk (botany), trunk with a crown (botany), crown of large, hard, stiff, evergreen and (usually) pinnate leaves. The species are dioecious, that is, individual plants o ...

s and

tree fern The tree ferns are arborescent (tree-like) ferns that grow with a trunk elevating the fronds above ground level, making them trees. Many extant tree ferns are members of the order Cyatheales, to which belong the families Cyatheaceae (scaly tree ...

s; and a tropical aquatic house which contains ''

Victoria cruziana ''Victoria cruziana'' (Santa Cruz water lily, water platter, yrupe, synonym ''Victoria argentina'' Burmeist.) is a tropical species of flowering plant, of the Nymphaeaceae family of water lilies native to South America, primarily Bolivia, Argent ...

'',

mangrove A mangrove is a shrub or tree that grows in coastal saline water, saline or brackish water. The term is also used for tropical coastal vegetation consisting of such species. Mangroves are taxonomically diverse, as a result of convergent evoluti ...

epiphyte An epiphyte is an organism that grows on the surface of a plant and derives its moisture and nutrients from the air, rain, water (in marine environments) or from debris accumulating around it. The plants on which epiphytes grow are called phoroph ...

s, etc.

References

* * German Wikipedia entry

Botanischer Garten Jena The Botanischer Garten Jena (4.5 hectares) is the second oldest botanical garden in Germany, maintained by the University of Jena and located at Fürstengraben 26, Jena, Thuringia, Germany. It is open daily; an admission fee is charged. The g ...

Garden map
* Ilse Jahn, "Zur Gründungs- und Entwicklungsgeschichte der Jenaer Botanischen Gärten (von 1586 bis 1864)", in ''Wissenschaftliche Zeitschrift der Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena. Naturwissenschaftliche Reihe'', 37. Jg. Heft 1. (1988), pages 17–25. {{DEFAULTSORT:Jena, Botanischer Garten Botanical gardens in Germany Gardens in Thuringia

See also

References