' ( Spanish for ''Royal Botanical Garden of Madrid'') is an

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 ...

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...

(

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = '' Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , ...

). The public entrance is located at , next to the

Prado Museum The Prado Museum ( ; ), officially known as Museo Nacional del Prado, is the main Spanish national art museum, located in central Madrid. It is widely considered to house one of the world's finest collections of European art, dating from th ...

History

José Quer y Martínez - Royal Botanical Garden, Madrid

The garden was founded on October 17, 1755, by King

Ferdinand VI , house = Bourbon-Anjou , father = Philip V of Spain , mother = Maria Luisa of Savoy , birth_date = 23 September 1713 , birth_place = Royal Alcazar of Madrid, Madrid, Spain , death_date = , death_place = Villavici ...

, and installed in the Orchard of Migas Calientes, near what today is called Puerta de Hierro, on the banks of the Manzanares River. It contained more than 2,000 plants collected by José Quer y Martínez, botanist and surgeon. In 1774 King

Charles III Charles III (Charles Philip Arthur George; born 14 November 1948) is King of the United Kingdom and the 14 other Commonwealth realms. He was the longest-serving heir apparent and Prince of Wales and, at age 73, became the oldest person ...

ordered the garden moved to its current location on the

Paseo del Prado The Paseo del Prado is one of the main boulevards in Madrid, Spain. It runs north–south between the Plaza de Cibeles and the Plaza del Emperador Carlos V (also known as Plaza de Atocha), with the Plaza de Cánovas del Castillo (the loca ...

. This new site opened in 1781. Inside an area defined by wrought iron fencing, the design by architects

Francesco Sabatini Francesco Sabatini (1721 – 19 February 1797), also known as Francisco Sabatini, was an Italian architect of the 18th century who worked in Spain. Biography Born in Palermo, he studied architecture in Rome. His first contacts with the Spa ...

and

Juan de Villanueva Juan de Villanueva (September 15, 1739 in Madrid – August 22, 1811) was a Spanish architect. Alongside Ventura Rodríguez, Villanueva is the best known architect of Spanish Neoclassicism. Biography His father was the sculptor Juan de Villa ...

organized the garden into three tiered terraces, arranging plants according to the method of Linnaeus. Its mission was not only to exhibit plants, but also to teach botany, promote expeditions for the discovery of new plant species and classify them. There was a particular interest in the botany of Spain's colonial possessions. The garden was greatly augmented by a collection of 10,000 plants brought to Spain by Alessandro Malaspina in 1794. The

Spanish War of Independence The Peninsular War (1807–1814) was the military conflict fought in the Iberian Peninsula by Spain, Portugal, and the United Kingdom against the invading and occupying forces of the First French Empire during the Napoleonic Wars. In Spain, ...

in 1808 caused the garden to be abandoned, but in 1857 director

Mariano de la Paz Graells y de la Agüera Mariano de la Paz Graells y de la Agüera (1809 – 1898) was a Spanish entomologist notable for pioneering work on the insects of corpses. Biography Graells was born in Tricio, in the Province of Logroño. He died in Madrid where he had been pr ...

revived it with a new greenhouse and refurbishment of the upper terrace. Under his leadership a zoo was created in the garden, but subsequently relocated to the . Between 1880 and 1890 the garden suffered heavy losses, first losing to the Ministry of Agriculture in 1882, then losing 564 trees in 1886 to a cyclone. Since 1939 the garden has been dependent on the

Spanish National Research Council The Spanish National Research Council ( es, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, CSIC) is the largest public institution dedicated to research in Spain and the third largest in Europe. Its main objective is to develop and promote res ...

(CSIC) and in 1942 was declared Artistic Garden. In 1974, after decades of hardship and neglect, the garden was closed to the public for restoration work to its original plan. It reopened in 1981.

Today's garden

Royal Botanical Garden, Madrid - view 08

Today's garden is divided into seven major outdoor sections and five

greenhouse A greenhouse (also called a glasshouse, or, if with sufficient heating, a hothouse) is a structure with walls and roof made chiefly of transparent material, such as glass, in which plants requiring regulated climatic conditions are grown.These ...

s which allow the cultivation of species which are not suited to Madrid's Continental Mediterranean climate. Total collections include about 90,000 plants and flowers, and 1,500 trees. * ' – collections of ornamental plants, medicinal, aromatic, endemic and orchard gathered around a small fountain. All are planted in box-edged plots. At its southwestern end is a Japanese garden. * ' – a taxonomic collection of plants, ordered

phylogenetically In biology, phylogenetics (; from Greek φυλή/ φῦλον [] "tribe, clan, race", and wikt:γενετικός, γενετικός [] "origin, source, birth") is the study of the evolutionary history and relationships among or within groups ...

and set within plots about 12 small fountains. * ' – a diverse collection of trees and shrubs, as designed in the mid-nineteenth century in the romantic English style. It contains the Villanueva Pavilion, built in 1781 as a greenhouse, and a pond with bust of

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

. The garden's two greenhouses are divided into four rooms. The Graëlls greenhouse dates from the nineteenth century and exhibits tropical plants and bryophytes. The newer structure supports three climates: tropical, temperate, and desert.

Herbarium

The herbarium is the largest in Spain and now contains over a million specimens from around the world. The oldest material consists of plants collected during scientific expeditions undertaken in the 18th and 19th centuries. As of 2016, the online herbarium's databases contained detailed information about all the specimens in the algae, bryophyte, lichen and fungi collections.

Scientific publications

* '' Annals of the Botanical Garden of Madrid'': This is the magazine published by the Botanical Garden, which publishes papers on plant taxonomy and systematics and fungi and related fields such as biogeography, bioinformatics, conservation, ecophysiology, phylogeny, phylogeography, floral, functional morphology, nomenclature or plant relationships -animal, including works of synthesis and review. The magazine sends information about the new species published to be included in the databases W3TROPICOS (vascular plants, bryophytes), International Plant Names Index or Index Fungorum. * ''

Flora Iberica ''Flora Iberica: Plantas vasculares de la Península Ibérica e Islas Baleares'' ("Vascular plants of the Iberian Peninsula and Balearic Islands") is a Spanish scientific journal specializing in botany. It was established in 1980. It is published ...

'': Publication of taxonomic research on vascular plants that grow wild in the Iberian Peninsula and Balearic Islands that was published 20 volumes of a total of 21 in 2018. * '' Flora Iberica Mycologica'': a serial and aperiodic publication with this generic title published, numbered consecutively, the monographic synthesis as they are being edited, without following a systematic order preset. The work is presented in two columns, with texts in Spanish and English. Bring identification keys, descriptions, distribution, commentary, and bibliographic information. Most species are accompanied by an illustration (ink drawings in black and white). * ''Ruizía'' (Monographs of the Royal Botanical Gardens): Workbooks Flora Micológica Ibérica. * ''

Flora Huayaquilensis ''Flora Huayaquilensis'' is the popular name for the body of work produced by botanist Juan José Tafalla Navascués while he was in South America. Navascués made one of the first expeditions to South America with a Spaniard who documented pla ...

'' is a large group of papers found by that detailed the expeditions of , a Spaniard who was one of the first who traveled to South America and documenting the different plants with wonderful paintings and written descriptions. All of this work was in the archives and only published by Ecuadorian researcher

Eduardo Estrella Aguirre Eduardo Estrella Aguirre (1941 in Tabacundo, Ecuador – 1996 in Quito) was an Ecuadorian doctor and researcher who published '' Flora Huayaquilensis: The Botanical Expedition of Juan Tafalla 1799-1808''. Dr. Eduardo Estrella studied medicin ...

after searching the Real Jardín Botánico in Madrid archives and finding the informaction that formed, Flora Huayaquilensis and finally the life work of Tafalla was published.

Photo gallery

File:Flora_Huayaquilensis.jpg, One of the pages in ''

http://www.lahora.com.ec/index.php/noticias/show/1101655266/-1/Morainville_y_Tafalla__tras_la_huella_de_la_quina.html#.U0dQk6h5MRF The Botanical Expedition of Juan Tafalla 1799-1808, Dr. Eduardo Estrella Aguirre published byafter searching the Real Jardín Botánico in Madrid archives] File:2016-11-10 Cucurbits (Cucurbitaceae) Madrid Botanico.jpg, ''Variedades de calabaza'' (Variety of

cucurbita ''Cucurbita'' (Latin for gourd) is a genus of herbaceous fruits in the gourd family, Cucurbitaceae (also known as ''cucurbits'' or ''cucurbi''), native to the Andes and Mesoamerica. Five edible species are grown and consumed for their flesh an ...

) in 2016

References

External links

* * Añón, C., S. Castroviejo, A. Fernández Alba, ''Real Jardín Botánico de Madrid'', Pabellón de Invernáculos, 1983. * Colmeiro y Penido, Miguel, ''Bosquejo histórico y estadístico del Jardín Botánico de Madrid'', 1875. * ''El Jardín botánico de Madrid. Un paseo guiado / Botanic Garden of Madrid. A guided walk'', Madrid, 2004. * ''El Real Jardín Botánico de Madrid (1755–2005): Ciencia, Colección y Escuela'', Real Jardín Botánico, Madrid, 2005. * Alessandro Malaspina, Andrew David, Felipe Fernandez-Armesto, ''The Malaspina Expedition, 1789-1794'', Hakluyt Society, 2001.
''Flora iberica'', Plantas vasculares de la Península Ibérica e Islas Baleares
In 2014 it published 18 volumes of a total of 21. {{DEFAULTSORT:Real Jardin Botanico de Madrid Madrid, Real Jardin Botanico de Parks in Madrid Paseo del Prado 1755 establishments in Spain Tourist attractions in Madrid