Arboretum d'Antsokay or Antsokay Arboretum 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. is ...

near the city of

Toliara Toliara (also known as ''Toliary'', ; formerly ''Tuléar'') is a city in southern Madagascar. It is the capital of the Atsimo-Andrefana region, located 936 km southwest of the national capital Antananarivo. The current spelling of the name ...

Madagascar Madagascar, officially the Republic of Madagascar, is an island country that includes the island of Madagascar and numerous smaller peripheral islands. Lying off the southeastern coast of Africa, it is the world's List of islands by area, f ...

. About 900

plant Plants are the eukaryotes that form the Kingdom (biology), kingdom Plantae; they are predominantly Photosynthesis, photosynthetic. This means that they obtain their energy from sunlight, using chloroplasts derived from endosymbiosis with c ...

species grow in the Arboretum, 90% of these

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...

to Madagascar, 80% of them considered to have medicinal value and many threatened with extinction.

Lonely Planet Lonely Planet is a travel guide book publisher. Founded in Australia in 1973, the company has printed over 150 million books. History 20th century Lonely Planet was founded by married couple Maureen Wheeler, Maureen and Tony Wheeler. In 19 ...

and

Rough Guides Rough Guides is a travel company that offers tailor-made trips planned and arranged by local travel experts based in destinations around the world. Originally established as a guidebook publisher in 1982, Rough Guides expanded into customized t ...

both list the Arboretum as the top attraction in Toliara. The Arboretum is located just off the RN7, about southeast of the city, and only from Toliara airport. It is open 7.30-17.30 and closed during the month of February. There is an interpretation centre, a small museum (with rocks,

fossils A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved ...

and an Aepyornis egg), a display of musical instruments and local crafts, a shop, a restaurant, as well as accommodation for visitors at ''Auberge de la Table''. Guided tours are available in

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Culture, language and peoples * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England * ''English'', an Amish ter ...

. Arboretum d'Antsokay collaborates on conservation projects with

Royal Botanic Gardens Kew Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew is a non-departmental public body in the United Kingdom sponsored by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. An internationally important botanical research and education institution, it employs 1,100 ...

, the WWF, and the CEPF.

Geography

Arboretum d'Antsokay is in the middle of an area of natural spiny forest, a

desert A desert is a landscape where little precipitation occurs and, consequently, living conditions create unique biomes and ecosystems. The lack of vegetation exposes the unprotected surface of the ground to denudation. About one-third of the la ...

habitat unique to Madagascar, and measures . The geology is

limestone Limestone is a type of carbonate rock, carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material Lime (material), lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different Polymorphism (materials science) ...

and red low-calcium

sand Sand is a granular material composed of finely divided mineral particles. Sand has various compositions but is usually defined by its grain size. Sand grains are smaller than gravel and coarser than silt. Sand can also refer to a textural ...

. Antsokaha is the name of the region, and means '

chalk Chalk is a soft, white, porous, sedimentary carbonate rock. It is a form of limestone composed of the mineral calcite and originally formed deep under the sea by the compression of microscopic plankton that had settled to the sea floor. Ch ...

' in Malagasy. It is from the western shore of Madagascar and the

Mozambique Channel The Mozambique Channel (, , ) is an arm of the Indian Ocean located between the Southeast African countries of Madagascar and Mozambique. The channel is about long and across at its narrowest point, and reaches a depth of about off the coa ...

and close to a small mountain called La Table. It is north of the

Tropic of Capricorn The Tropic of Capricorn (or the Southern Tropic) is the circle of latitude that contains the subsolar point at the December (or southern) solstice. It is thus the southernmost latitude where the Sun can be seen directly overhead. It also reach ...

Wildlife

Plants include ''

Commiphora ''Commiphora'' is the most species-rich genus of flowering plants in the frankincense and myrrh family, Burseraceae. The genus contains approximately 190 species of shrubs and trees, which are distributed throughout the (sub-) tropical regions of A ...

'',

baobab ''Adansonia'' is a genus of medium-to-large deciduous trees known as baobabs ( or ). The eight species of ''Adansonia'' are native to Africa, Australia, and Madagascar but have also been introduced to other regions of the world, including Barb ...

, ''

Didierea madagascariensis ''Didierea madagascariensis'', common name, commonly known as the octopus tree, is a species of Didiereaceae endemic to the Madagascar spiny thickets, spiny thickets of southwestern Madagascar. It was first species description, described scientif ...

'', ''

Kalanchoe ''Kalanchoe'' ( ), (also called "kalanchöe" or "kalanchoë"), is a genus of about 125 species of tropical, succulent plants in the stonecrop family Crassulaceae, mainly native to Madagascar and tropical Africa. A ''Kalanchoe'' species was one ...

'', ''

Pachypodium ''Pachypodium'' is a genus of succulent spine-bearing trees and shrubs, native to Madagascar and Africa. It belongs to the family Apocynaceae. Genus characteristics All ''Pachypodium'' are succulent plants that exhibit, to varying degrees, the ...

'' and ''

Alluaudia procera ''Alluaudia procera'', or Madagascar ocotillo, is a deciduous succulent plant species of the family Didiereaceae. It is endemic to south Madagascar. Description This plant is a spiny succulent shrub, with thick water-storing stems and leaves th ...

''.

Mouse lemurs A mouse (: mice) is a small rodent. Characteristically, mice are known to have a pointed snout, small rounded ears, a body-length scaly tail, and a high breeding rate. The best known mouse species is the common house mouse (''Mus musculus'' ...

live in the Arboretum. 34 species of birds and 25 species of reptile have also been sighted there. Birds include '' Coua ruficeps'', '' Falco newtoni'' and ''

Merops superciliosus The olive bee-eater or Madagascar bee-eater (''Merops superciliosus'') is a near passerine bee-eater species in the genus ''Merops''. It is native to the southern half of Africa where it is present in Angola; Botswana; Burundi; Comoros; Democrati ...

''. The Arboretum has played a role in conservation efforts to preserve the

radiated tortoise The radiated tortoise (''Astrochelys radiata'') is a tortoise species in the family Testudinidae. Although this species is native to and most abundant in southern Madagascar, it can also be found in the rest of this island, and has been introd ...

, a very endangered species in the southern deserts.

History

A Swiss botanist and conservationist, :fr:Herman Petignat established the Arboretum in 1980. His son Andry has managed the arboretum since 2003. According to

Botanic Gardens Conservation International Botanic Gardens Conservation International (BGCI) is a plant conservation biology, conservation Charitable organization, charity based in Kew, Surrey, England. It is a membership organisation, working with 800 botanic gardens in 118 countries, wh ...

"On a surface of 40 hectares, surrounded by vegetal hedges, the project initiator exerted himself to have the most threatened plants species, reproduced and multiplied either by seeding,cutting or transplantation process in order to preserve most of them from constant deforestation, bush fire and looters."Botanical Gardens Conservation International
/ref> Herman Petignat was assisted in discovering several plant species by

Werner Rauh Werner Rauh (16 May 1913 in Niemegk – 7 April 2000 in Heidelberg) was a German biologist, botanist and author. Biography Born in the town of Niemegk near Bitterfeld, Rauh studied at Biology faculty at the University of Halle under the morp ...

. These species were ''

Euphorbia ''Euphorbia'' is a large and diverse genus of flowering plants, commonly called spurge, in the family (biology), family Euphorbiaceae. Euphorbias range from tiny annual plants to large and long-lived trees, with perhaps the tallest being ''Eu ...

spinicapsula'', ''Euphorbia kamponii'', ''Euphorbia suzannae-marnierae'' and ''

Aloe ''Aloe'' (; also written ''Aloë'') is a genus containing over 650 species of flowering plant, flowering succulent plant, succulent plants.WFO (2022): Aloe L. Published on the Internet;http://www.worldfloraonline.org/taxon/wfo-4000001341. Acc ...

ruffingiana''. ''

Ceropegia ''Ceropegia'' is a genus of plants within the family Apocynaceae, native to Africa, southern Asia, and Australia. It was named by Carl Linnaeus, who first described this genus in his ''Genera plantarum'', which appeared in 1737. Linnaeus referr ...

petignatii'' and ''

Cynanchum ''Cynanchum'' is a genus of about 300 species including some swallowworts, belonging to the family Apocynaceae. The taxon name comes from Greek ''kynos'' (meaning "dog") and ''anchein'' ("to choke"), hence the common name for several species is ...

petignatii'' were named after Petignat by Rauh.

References

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