BotanischerGartenPotsdam GewaechshaeuserEingang0706a

The Botanical Garden in Potsdam (german: Botanischer Garten Potsdam or ''Botanischer Garten der Universität Potsdam''), 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 maintained by the

University of Potsdam The University of Potsdam is a public university in Potsdam, capital of the state of Brandenburg, Germany. It is mainly situated across three campuses in the city. Some faculty buildings are part of the New Palace of Sanssouci which is known ...

. It has a total area of 8.5 hectares, of which 5 hectares are open to the public, and is located immediately southwest of the

Orangery Palace The Orangery Palace (german: Orangerieschloss) is a palace located in the Sanssouci Park of Potsdam, Germany. It is also known as the New Orangery on the Klausberg, or just the Orangery. It was built on behest of the "Romantic on the Throne", Ki ...

at ''Maulbeerallee 2'',

Potsdam Potsdam () is the capital and, with around 183,000 inhabitants, largest city of the German state of Brandenburg. It is part of the Berlin/Brandenburg Metropolitan Region. Potsdam sits on the River Havel, a tributary of the Elbe, downstream o ...

, in the German state of

Brandenburg Brandenburg (; nds, Brannenborg; dsb, Bramborska ) is a state in the northeast of Germany bordering the states of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Saxony, as well as the country of Poland. With an area of 29,480 sq ...

. It is open daily; an admission fee is charged for the glasshouses only (2017). The garden was established in 1950 on two adjacent plots of land: part of the

Sanssouci Park Sanssouci Park is a large park surrounding Sanssouci Palace in Potsdam, Germany, built under Frederick the Great in the mid-1700s. Following the terracing of the vineyard and the completion of the palace, the surroundings were included in the stru ...

, and the Paradise Garden (about 2.5 hectares). After

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 ...

, the Sanssouci park was controlled by the

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army ( Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and, afte ...

, and briefly formed a branch of the

Moscow Botanical Garden of Academy of Sciences The Tsitsin Main Moscow Botanical Garden of Academy of Sciences was founded in April 1945, and claims itself to be the largest botanical garden in Europe. It covers a territory of approximately 3.61 km², bordering the VDNKH Exhibition Cent ...

. In 1950 today's garden was created at the northern edge of Sanssouci with the Maulbeerallee dividing the garden into two distinct areas. To the north is the Paradise Garden, now a teaching and display garden; and to the south side is the institute building, greenhouses, and outdoor space. Today the garden cultivates about 9,000

taxa In biology, a taxon (back-formation from ''taxonomy''; plural taxa) is a group of one or more populations of an organism or organisms seen by taxonomists to form a unit. Although neither is required, a taxon is usually known by a particular nam ...

, with excellent collections of succulents (880),

Begoniaceae Begoniaceae is a family of flowering plants with two genera and about 2040 species occurring in the subtropics and tropics of both the New World and Old World. All but one of the species are in the genus ''Begonia''. There have been many recent d ...

(89 spp.),

Araceae The Araceae are a family of monocotyledonous flowering plants in which flowers are borne on a type of inflorescence called a spadix. The spadix is usually accompanied by, and sometimes partially enclosed in, a spathe (or leaf-like bract). A ...

(c.250 spp.),

Aizoaceae The Aizoaceae, or fig-marigold family, is a large family of dicotyledonous flowering plants containing 135 genera and about 1800 species. They are commonly known as ice plants or carpet weeds. They are often called vygies in South Africa and Ne ...

(c.260 spp.),

Haworthia ''Haworthia'' is a large genus of small succulent plants endemic to Southern Africa ( Mozambique, Namibia, Lesotho, Eswatini and South Africa). Like the aloes, they are members of the subfamily Asphodeloideae and they generally resemble ...

(55 spp.),

fern A fern (Polypodiopsida or Polypodiophyta ) is a member of a group of vascular plants (plants with xylem and phloem) that reproduce via spores and have neither seeds nor flowers. The polypodiophytes include all living pteridophytes exce ...

s (230), Australian Proteaceae,

orchid Orchids are plants that belong to the family Orchidaceae (), a diverse and widespread group of flowering plants with blooms that are often colourful and fragrant. Along with the Asteraceae, they are one of the two largest families of flowerin ...

s (320), chimaeras, invasive species, and Chinese medical herbs. The garden cultivates about 4,000 taxa outdoors, including 50 species from

that are threatened with extinction. Major outdoor sections include an arboretum; collections from

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. ...

and

Eurasia Eurasia (, ) is the largest continental area on Earth, comprising all of Europe and Asia. Primarily in the Northern and Eastern Hemispheres, it spans from the British Isles and the Iberian Peninsula in the west to the Japanese archipelago ...

n steppes; the

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 ...

deciduous In the fields of horticulture and Botany, the term ''deciduous'' () means "falling off at maturity" and "tending to fall off", in reference to trees and shrubs that seasonally shed leaves, usually in the autumn; to the shedding of petals, ...

forest; North American

prairie Prairies are ecosystems considered part of the temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biome by ecologists, based on similar temperate climates, moderate rainfall, and a composition of grasses, herbs, and shrubs, rather than trees, as the ...

s; an

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 ...

; rhododendrons; wild flowers; a

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 ...

garden;

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 aquatic plants; morphological gardens illustrating a variety of leaves,

shoot In botany, a plant shoot consists of any plant stem together with its appendages, leaves and lateral buds, flowering stems, and flower buds. The new growth from seed germination that grows upward is a shoot where leaves will develop. In the sp ...

root In vascular plants, the roots are the organs of a plant that are modified to provide anchorage for the plant and take in water and nutrients into the plant body, which allows plants to grow taller and faster. They are most often below the su ...

flower A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproductive structure found in flowering plants (plants of the division Angiospermae). The biological function of a flower is to facilitate reproduction, usually by providing a mechani ...

s, and

fruit In botany, a fruit is the seed-bearing structure in flowering plants that is formed from the ovary after flowering. Fruits are the means by which flowering plants (also known as angiosperms) disseminate their seeds. Edible fruits in particu ...

; useful plants including dyeing,

fiber Fiber or fibre (from la, fibra, links=no) is a natural or artificial substance that is significantly longer than it is wide. Fibers are often used in the manufacture of other materials. The strongest engineering materials often incorpora ...

, and food crops; medicinal and aromatic plants; and protected and

endangered plants As of September 2016, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) lists 3654 endangered plant species. 17% of all evaluated plant species are listed as endangered. The IUCN also lists 99 subspecies and 101 varieties as endangered ...

from Germany. The garden's ten greenhouses (approximately 3,000 m² total area) contain about 4,600

tropical The tropics are the regions of Earth surrounding the Equator. They are defined in latitude by the Tropic of Cancer in the Northern Hemisphere at N and the Tropic of Capricorn in the Southern Hemisphere at S. The tropics are also referred to ...

and subtropical species in a palm house, epiphyte house,

house,

cactus A cactus (, or less commonly, cactus) is a member of the plant family Cactaceae, a family comprising about 127 genera with some 1750 known species of the order Caryophyllales. The word ''cactus'' derives, through Latin, from the Ancient Gree ...

house, aquarium house, Victoria house, etc. These houses also contain

coffee Coffee is a drink prepared from roasted coffee beans. Darkly colored, bitter, and slightly acidic, coffee has a stimulating effect on humans, primarily due to its caffeine content. It is the most popular hot drink in the world. Seeds of ...

and cocoa trees, sugarcane,

cotton Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective case, around the seeds of the cotton plants of the genus '' Gossypium'' in the mallow family Malvaceae. The fiber is almost pure cellulose, and can contain minor pe ...

cassava ''Manihot esculenta'', commonly called cassava (), manioc, or yuca (among numerous regional names), is a woody shrub of the spurge family, Euphorbiaceae, native to South America. Although a perennial plant, cassava is extensively cultivated ...

, guava,

begonia ''Begonia'' is a genus of perennial flowering plants in the family Begoniaceae. The genus contains more than 2,000 different plant species. The Begonias are native to moist subtropical and tropical climates. Some species are commonly grown ind ...

s, and carnivorous plants.

External links

Botanischer Garten Potsdam

Garden map

BGCI entry

Hermann von Helmholtz-Zentrum entry

Potsdam description

Qype entry
* Botanischer Garten der Universität Potsdam, ''Wegweiser durch die Gewächshäuser und Freilandanlagen des Botanischen Gartens der Universität Potsdam'', Potsdam, 1994. {{authority control Potsdam, Botanischer Garten Potsdam, Botanischer Garten Tourist attractions in Potsdam Geography of Potsdam University of Potsdam

See also

External links