The Exotenwald Weinheim (about 60 hectares) is a forest

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 ...

located beside the Schlosspark in

Weinheim Weinheim (; pfl, Woinem) is a town with about 43,000 inhabitants in northwest Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is in the Rhine-Neckar Metropolitan Region, approximately north of Heidelberg and northeast of Mannheim. Weinheim is known as the "Zwei ...

Baden-Württemberg Baden-Württemberg (; ), commonly shortened to BW or BaWü, is a German state () in Southwest Germany, east of the Rhine, which forms the southern part of Germany's western border with France. With more than 11.07 million inhabitants across a ...

, Germany. It is open daily without charge. The arboretum was established in 1871 by Christian Friedrich Gustav Freiherr von Berckheim (1817–1889), former Minister of State and Großhofmeister at the court in

Karlsruhe Karlsruhe ( , , ; South Franconian: ''Kallsruh'') is the third-largest city of the German state (''Land'') of Baden-Württemberg after its capital of Stuttgart and Mannheim, and the 22nd-largest city in the nation, with 308,436 inhabitants. ...

, on the grounds of a baroque estate founded in 1725. His initial plantings were extensive – between 1872 and 1883 he planted some 12,494 trees on 36 hectares – with specimens purchased predominantly from specialist nurseries in

Orléans Orléans (;"Orleans"
(US) and Ghent Ghent ( nl, Gent ; french: Gand ; traditional English: Gaunt) is a city and a municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of the East Flanders province, and the third largest in the country, exceeded in ...

, and

Exeter Exeter () is a city in Devon, South West England. It is situated on the River Exe, approximately northeast of Plymouth and southwest of Bristol. In Roman Britain, Exeter was established as the base of Legio II Augusta under the personal comm ...

. Approximately 1460 sequoia trees were planted in this interval within a site. Although the climate has not proved entirely hospitable, and the original catalog of 150

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 ...

has subsequently dwindled to about 50, many mature specimens still remain, including original plantings of ''

Calocedrus decurrens ''Calocedrus decurrens'', with the common names incense cedar and California incense-cedar (syn. ''Libocedrus decurrens'' Torr.), is a species of coniferous tree native to western North America. It is the most widely known species in the genus, ...

'', ''

Sequoiadendron giganteum ''Sequoiadendron giganteum'' (giant sequoia; also known as giant redwood, Sierra redwood, Sierran redwood, California big tree, Wellingtonia or simply big treea nickname also used by John Muir) is the sole living species in the genus ''Sequoiade ...

'', ''

Pinus jeffreyi ''Pinus jeffreyi'', also known as Jeffrey pine, Jeffrey's pine, yellow pine and black pine, is a North American pine tree. It is mainly found in California, but also in the westernmost part of Nevada, southwestern Oregon, and northern Baja Califo ...

'', ''

Pinus ponderosa ''Pinus ponderosa'', commonly known as the ponderosa pine, bull pine, blackjack pine, western yellow-pine, or filipinus pine is a very large pine tree species of variable habitat native to mountainous regions of western North America. It is the ...

'', and ''

Thuja plicata ''Thuja plicata'' is an evergreen coniferous tree in the cypress family Cupressaceae, native to western North America. Its common name is western redcedar (western red cedar in the UK), and it is also called Pacific redcedar, giant arborvitae, w ...

''. After Gustav's death, the arboretum was neglected for several decades until his grandson, Christian Philipp Graf von Berckheim, became owner. He planted a further 8.25 hectares of exotic trees, with plantings in the years before World War II focused primarily on

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

and especially Japan, including specimens of ''

Cercidiphyllum japonicum ''Cercidiphyllum japonicum'', known as the katsura (from its Japanese name カツラ, 桂), is a species of flowering tree in the family Cercidiphyllaceae native to China and Japan. It is sometimes called ''caramel tree'' for the light caramel s ...

'', ''

Cryptomeria japonica ''Cryptomeria'' (literally "hidden parts") is a monotypic genus of conifer in the cypress family Cupressaceae, formerly belonging to the family Taxodiaceae. It includes only one species, ''Cryptomeria japonica'' ( syn. ''Cupressus japonica'' L ...

'', and ''

Magnolia hypoleuca ''Magnolia obovata'', the Japanese cucumber tree,Kayano, S. (2014). ''Ainu Tools''. Biratori: Yuideku Co., Ltd. Japanese bigleaf magnolia, or Japanese whitebark magnolia, is a species of ''Magnolia'', native to Japan and the adjacent Kurile Isla ...

''. In 1955 the arboretum was sold to the state of

. Since then, it has been augmented with South American and New Zealand plantings, with continued expansion of its European, Asian, North American, and North African collections, and an emphasis on trees from China and

Korea Korea ( ko, 한국, or , ) is a peninsular region in East Asia. Since 1945, it has been divided at or near the 38th parallel, with North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) comprising its northern half and South Korea (Republic o ...

. It now contains about 130 tree

References

Exotenwald Weinheim

GardenVisit entry

Baumkunde blog entries
* Ulrich Wilhelm unter Mitarbeit von Wolfgang Ernst, ''Der Weinheimer Exotenwald'', Verlag DiesbachMedien GmbH, 2nd edition, 2002. {{Coord, 49.5451, 8.6845, type:landmark_region:DE, display=title Weinheim, Exotenwald Weinheim, Exotenwald Weinheim

See also

References