The Johannesburg Botanical Garden is located in the suburb of Emmarentia in

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a megacity, and is one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world. According to Dem ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...

. The gardens grew out of a large rose garden that was established in 1964 (becoming known locally as the "Rose Garden") and subsequently expanded from 1969 to cover an area of around . It is administered by Johannesburg City Parks. The Emmarentia Dam is situated immediately to the east of the garden and shares its extensive acreage. One of the main attractions is the Rose Garden with over 10 000 roses.

History

The Johannesburg Botanical Garden lies on land that once made up the ''Braamfontein ''farm, one of many large farms that make what is now Johannesburg and its suburbs. The farm has its origin back as far as 1853. The land was bought in 1886 by Lourens Geldenhuys for its mining rights as it was hoped that the Confidence Reef would extend into his farm but it did not. Land remained as a farm and by 1891 it was divided between his son's Frans and Louw where the brothers had already built two farm houses. After the

Second Boer War The Second Boer War ( af, Tweede Vryheidsoorlog, , 11 October 189931 May 1902), also known as the Boer War, the Anglo–Boer War, or the South African War, was a conflict fought between the British Empire and the two Boer Republics (the South ...

, in which Louw Geldenhuys and his brother had taken part of as members of the

Krugersdorp Krugersdorp (Afrikaans for ''Kruger's Town'') is a mining city in the West Rand, Gauteng Province, South Africa founded in 1887 by Marthinus Pretorius. Following the discovery of gold on the Witwatersrand, a need arose for a major town in the west ...

Commando, he decided to help some landless and unemployed Boers war veterans. He used them to construct a stone and earth dam from blocks of stone from the Melville Koppies behind the farm and cost £12,000. The dam was built over the Westdene spruit which is a tributary of the larger Braamfontein Spruit. The dam was then named after his wife Emmarentia Margaretha Botha. Louw died in 1929 and his wife Emmarentia would begin to sell parts of the farm that became the suburbs Greenside in 1931, and Emmarentia on 28 April 1937, named after her and in 1941, Emmarentia Extension. In 1933, 13 hectares of the farm were donated to the

City of Johannesburg The City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality is a metropolitan municipality that manages the local governance of Johannesburg, South Africa. It is divided into several branches and departments in order to expedite services for the city. Z ...

for parks and recreation, and after further pieces of land were acquired, became the Jan van Riebeeck Park (1952), Emmarentia Dam (1939), West Park Cemetery (1942) the Marks Park Sports Club (1951) and the Johannesburg Botanical Garden (1968). The Johannesburg Council had been approached with the suggestions for a botanical garden since the 1920s. Eventually on 19 November 1968, the director of parks and recreation for the city presented a report to council with suggestion for a botanical garden. The council would agree and the botanical park would be developed on land in the Jan van Riebeeck Park with 81ha set aside.

Collections

The garden is organized by theme and purpose of use and consists of

Restaurant

Cafe that serves light meals.

Chapel garden

This garden is used an outdoor

chapel A chapel is a Christian place of prayer and worship that is usually relatively small. The term has several meanings. Firstly, smaller spaces inside a church that have their own altar are often called chapels; the Lady chapel is a common ty ...

for weddings of all denominations.

Shakespeare garden

With a circular amphitheatre, this Shakespeare Garden contains the different types of herbs mention in Shakespearean work with quotes attached to the labels. Shakespearean events can be held there.

Rose garden

Prior to the creation of the Botanical Gardens, the park had a

rose garden A rose garden or rosarium is a garden or park, often open to the public, used to present and grow various types of garden roses, and sometimes rose species. Most often it is a section of a larger garden. Designs vary tremendously and roses m ...

that was laid out in 1964 by curator Patric Chambers. The garden consists of seven sloping terraces of about 10,000 roses. New roses are planted in a bed each year. The garden has water features and fountains.

Hedge garden

This garden has 58 different types of hedges.

Succulent garden

This garden was opened in 2006 and designed with a desert outlook with more than 85 different species of

succulents 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 ...

. There are also six glasshouses with South African and international succulents but are only open by appointment.

Arboretum

This area has both indigenous and exotic trees from around the world and includes Californian Redwoods, silver birches and English oaks though the park and arboretum itself has over 20 000 indigenous trees.

Herb garden

This garden contains herbs used in food preparation, cosmetics and oils as well as a section for plants used as

muti Muthi is a traditional medicine practice in Southern Africa as far north as Lake Tanganyika. Name In South African English, the word ''muti'' is derived from the Zulu/Xhosa/ Northern Ndebele ''umuthi'', meaning 'tree', whose root is ''-thi''. ...

, for African traditional medicine.

Johannesburg Botanical Garden Herbarium and Library

Herbarium

The herbarium houses 5,532 indigenous and exotic pressed plant specimens. Close by are the seed rooms that house seeds collected from parks in the City Johannesburg and are shared around the world.

Library

The library has 1,421 books, and 1,414 journals and pamphlets covering subjects such as

taxonomy Taxonomy is the practice and science of categorization or classification. A taxonomy (or taxonomical classification) is a scheme of classification, especially a hierarchical classification, in which things are organized into groups or types. ...

, biodiversity,

morphology Morphology, from the Greek and meaning "study of shape", may refer to: Disciplines * Morphology (archaeology), study of the shapes or forms of artifacts * Morphology (astronomy), study of the shape of astronomical objects such as nebulae, galaxies ...

, plant anatomy, plant geography, ethnobotany and landscaping.

Other areas

* A

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

Garden * A Floreum * A Bird island * Wetlands * Picnic area * Dog walking section * Nursery * Environmental Education Center

Monuments and memorials

Johannesburg Botanical Garden Huguenot Memorial (front)

A monument commemorating the 300th anniversary of the

Huguenots The Huguenots ( , also , ) were a religious group of French Protestants who held to the Reformed, or Calvinist, tradition of Protestantism. The term, which may be derived from the name of a Swiss political leader, the Genevan burgomaster Be ...

in South Africa is located at the top of the rose garden.

References

External links

Johannesburg Botanical Garden on Johannesburg City Parks website
{{Biodiversity of South Africa, natres Parks in Johannesburg Botanical gardens in South Africa Tourist attractions in Johannesburg Tourist attractions in Gauteng