The Jardin botanique de l'École nationale vétérinaire d'Alfort 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 ...

operated by the École nationale vétérinaire d'Alfort, and located on the school's grounds at 7, avenue du Général de Gaulle, Maisons-Alfort,

Val-de-Marne Val-de-Marne (, "Vale of the Marne") is a department of France located in the Île-de-France region. Named after the river Marne, it is situated in the Grand Paris metropolis to the southeast of the City of Paris. In 2019, Val-de-Marne had a pop ...

Île-de-France , timezone1 = CET , utc_offset1 = +01:00 , timezone1_DST = CEST , utc_offset1_DST = +02:00 , blank_name_sec1 = Gross regional product , blank_info_sec1 = Ranked 1st , bla ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

. It is open to the public; an admission fee is charged. The garden was first established in 1766 as the school's ''jardin des plantes'' under the direction of Honoré Fragonard, and in 1771 began to classify plants according to the botanical system of Joseph Pitton de Tournefort (1656–1708). In 1801, it began to specialize in

silkworm The domestic silk moth (''Bombyx mori''), is an insect from the moth family Bombycidae. It is the closest relative of ''Bombyx mandarina'', the wild silk moth. The silkworm is the larva or caterpillar of a silk moth. It is an economically imp ...

cultivation and

honey Honey is a sweet and viscous substance made by several bees, the best-known of which are honey bees. Honey is made and stored to nourish bee colonies. Bees produce honey by gathering and then refining the sugary secretions of plants (primar ...

production. By 1882, when the herb garden moved, it contained about 1,600

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 ...

classified according to the "Baillon system". During

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

the garden was converted to grow

vegetable Vegetables are parts of plants that are consumed by humans or other animals as food. The original meaning is still commonly used and is applied to plants collectively to refer to all edible plant matter, including the flowers, fruits, stems, ...

s; though subsequently restored, it was reduced in area by about 4,000 m² in 1930. Garden restoration began in 1960 and accelerated in the late 1970s. Today the garden contains collections of

herb In general use, herbs are a widely distributed and widespread group of plants, excluding vegetables and other plants consumed for macronutrients, with savory or aromatic properties that are used for flavoring and garnishing food, for medicinal ...

s and toxic and medicinal plants, with a particularly strong collection of melliferous plants (those used for

production) and beehives, as well as a seed bank containing 1,813 accessions representing 1,700

(as of 1994).

References

Jardin botanique de l'École nationale vétérinaire d'Alfort

BGCI entry
Gardens in Val-de-Marne Botanical gardens in France {{France-garden-stub

See also

References