The Botanischer Garten Frankfurt am Main (7 hectares) 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 ...

and arboretum formerly maintained by the

Goethe University Goethe University (german: link=no, Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main) is a university located in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. It was founded in 1914 as a citizens' university, which means it was founded and funded by the wealt ...

and since 2012 administered by the City of Frankfurt. It is located at Siesmayerstraße 72,

Frankfurt am Main Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , "Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its na ...

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 ...

, and opens daily in the warmer months. First Garden: near the Eschenheimer Tor (1767–1907). Frankfurt's first botanical garden was created in the years 1763–1774 by Johann Christian Senckenberg (1707–1772), and was operated by the Senckenberg Foundation as a ''hortus medicus'' for the cultivation of medicinal herbs for the foundation's public hospital and medical institute. Its site, about 1 hectare in size, was patterned on

Carl Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (; 23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after his Nobility#Ennoblement, ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné#Blunt, Blunt (2004), p. 171. (), was a Swedish botanist, zoologist, taxonomist, and physician who formalise ...

' garden in

Uppsala Uppsala (, or all ending in , ; archaically spelled ''Upsala'') is the county seat of Uppsala County and the fourth-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm, Gothenburg, and Malmö. It had 177,074 inhabitants in 2019. Located north of the c ...

. Until 1867 every director was a physician. By 1903, the garden cultivated more than 4,000

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 ...

but its extent had been gradually reduced by hospital expansion until just 7,000 m² remained. Second Garden: adjacent to the

Palmengarten The Palmengarten is one of three botanical gardens in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. It is located in the Westend-Süd district. It covers a surface of 22 hectares. It is a major tourist attraction. History Like many public sites in Frankfurt ...

(1907–1958). After lengthy negotiations between the city and foundation, a new, 1.4-hectare site was found just east of the Palmengarten. The move took place in 1907–1908. When the university was founded in 1914, the garden became a research facility. In the 1930s it was improved by an arboretum,

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 ...

, and sand dunes. (The Palmengarten was restored in the 1960s and serves as Frankfurt's other major botanical garden.) Third Garden: Siesmayerstraße (since 1931). From 1931 to 1937, the garden again began relocation to today's site on Siesmayerstraße in the northwestern Grüneburgpark. This move was delayed by

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

and the subsequent American occupation, and relocation was finally completed in 1958. A laboratory building and large greenhouse were added in the years 1961–63. Today the garden contains about 5,000

, with special collections of ''

Rubus ''Rubus'' is a large and diverse genus of flowering plants in the rose family, Rosaceae, subfamily Rosoideae, with over 1,350 species. Raspberries, blackberries, and dewberries are common, widely distributed members of the genus. Most of the ...

'' (45

) and indigenous plants of

central Europe Central Europe is an area of Europe between Western Europe and Eastern Europe, based on a common historical, social and cultural identity. The Thirty Years' War (1618–1648) between Catholicism and Protestantism significantly shaped the a ...

. It is organized into two major areas as follows. The geobotanical area contains an

, arboretum,

meadow A meadow ( ) is an open habitat, or field, vegetated by grasses, herbs, and other non- woody plants. Trees or shrubs may sparsely populate meadows, as long as these areas maintain an open character. Meadows may be naturally occurring or arti ...

s, steppes,

marsh A marsh is a wetland that is dominated by herbaceous rather than woody plant species.Keddy, P.A. 2010. Wetland Ecology: Principles and Conservation (2nd edition). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. 497 p Marshes can often be found a ...

, and

pond A pond is an area filled with water, either natural or artificial, that is smaller than a lake. Defining them to be less than in area, less than deep, and with less than 30% emergent vegetation helps in distinguishing their ecology from ...

, as well as collections of plants from the Canary Islands,

Caucasus The Caucasus () or Caucasia (), is a region between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, mainly comprising Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia (country), Georgia, and parts of Southern Russia. The Caucasus Mountains, including the Greater Caucasus range ...

East Asia East Asia is the eastern region of Asia, which is defined in both Geography, geographical and culture, ethno-cultural terms. The modern State (polity), states of East Asia include China, Japan, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea, and Taiwan. ...

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western Europe, Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa ...

, and North America. The systematic and ecological collection includes

crop A crop is a plant that can be grown and harvested extensively for profit or subsistence. When the plants of the same kind are cultivated at one place on a large scale, it is called a crop. Most crops are cultivated in agriculture or hydropon ...

plants, endangered species, ornamental plants,

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 the ''Neuer Senckenbergischer Arzneipflanzengarten'' (New Senckenberg Medicinal Plant Garden, 1200 m²). When the biological institutes of the Goethe University moved to the Riedberg, a new botanical garden, the Wissenschaftsgarten, was built there and the Botanischer Garten became part of the City of Frankfurt in 2012. Some collections, especially of tropical plants, moved to the new garden, but the majority, mainly temperate plants, remained in place.

References

The Botanical Garden at the Website of the city of Frankfurt

Botanischer Garten der Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main

Neuer Senckenbergischer Arzneipflanzengarten

Hermann von Helmholtz-Zentrum entry

BGCI entry

Wikimapia entry
* Alberternst, B., ''Der Botanische Garten der J. W. Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main. Ein illustrierter Führer'', Norderstedt (Books on Demand GmbH), 2005. * Reichard, J. J., ''Enumeratio stirpium horti botanici Senkenbergiani, qui Francofurti ad Mönum est. 8.'', Frankfurt a. Main, 1782. * Rosenstock, Günter, "Das Botanische Institut und der Botanische Garten im Jahre 1966, ihre Gebäude, Betriebseinheiten und Freilandanlagen", pages 57–97 in K. Egle, G. Rosenstock (ed), ''Die Geschichte der Botanik in Frankfurt am Main'', Umschau Verlag, Frankfurt a.M., 1966. {{DEFAULTSORT:Botanischer Garten der Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universitat Frankfurt am Main Frankfurt am Main, Botanischer Garten der Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universitat Goethe University Frankfurt Tourist attractions in Frankfurt Frankfurt am Main, Botanischer Garten der Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universitat

See also

References