The Botanischer Garten Frankfurt am Main (7 hectares) 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 ...

and

arboretum An arboretum (: arboreta) is a botanical collection composed exclusively of trees and shrubs of a variety of species. Originally mostly created as a section in a larger garden or park for specimens of mostly non-local species, many modern arbor ...

formerly maintained by the Goethe University and since 2012 administered by the City of Frankfurt. It is located at Siesmayerstraße 72,

Frankfurt am Main Frankfurt am Main () is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Hesse. Its 773,068 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the List of cities in Germany by population, fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located in the forela ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

, and opens daily in the warmer months. First Garden: near the Eschenheimer Turm (1767–1907). Frankfurt's first botanical garden was created in the years 1763–1774 by

Johann Christian Senckenberg Johann Christian Senckenberg (28 February 1707 – 15 November 1772) was a German physician, naturalist and Collecting, collector. In 1763, he established the Senckenberg Foundation to support natural sciences. This founded the Botanischer ...

(1707–1772), and was operated by the Senckenberg Foundation as a ''hortus medicus'' for the cultivation of medicinal herbs for the foundation's public hospital and medical institute. Its site, about 1 hectare in size, was patterned on

Carl Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné,#Blunt, Blunt (2004), p. 171. was a Swedish biologist and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the modern system of naming o ...

' garden in

Uppsala Uppsala ( ; ; archaically spelled ''Upsala'') is the capital of Uppsala County and the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, fourth-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm, Gothenburg, and Malmö. It had 177,074 inhabitants in 2019. Loc ...

. Until 1867 every director was a physician. By 1903, the garden cultivated more than 4,000

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

but its extent had been gradually reduced by hospital expansion until just 7,000 m² remained. Second Garden: adjacent to the Palmengarten (1907–1958). After lengthy negotiations between the city and foundation, a new, 1.4-hectare site was found just east of the Palmengarten. The move took place in 1907–1908. When the university was founded in 1914, the garden became a research facility. In the 1930s it was improved by an

, alpine garden, and

sand dune A dune is a landform composed of wind- or water-driven sand. It typically takes the form of a mound, ridge, or hill. An area with dunes is called a dune system or a dune complex. A large dune complex is called a dune field, while broad, flat ...

s. (The Palmengarten was restored in the 1960s and serves as Frankfurt's other major botanical garden.) Third Garden: Siesmayerstraße (since 1931). From 1931 to 1937, the garden again began relocation to today's site on Siesmayerstraße in the northwestern Grüneburgpark. This move was delayed by

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

and the subsequent American occupation, and relocation was finally completed in 1958. A laboratory building and large

greenhouse A greenhouse is a structure that is designed to regulate the temperature and humidity of the environment inside. There are different types of greenhouses, but they all have large areas covered with transparent materials that let sunlight pass an ...

were added in the years 1961–63. Today the garden contains about 5,000

, with special collections of ''

Rubus ''Rubus'' is a large and diverse genus of flowering plants in the rose family, Rosaceae, subfamily Rosoideae, most commonly known as brambles. Fruits of various species are known as raspberries, blackberries, dewberries, and bristleberries. ...

'' (45

) and indigenous plants of

central Europe Central Europe is a geographical region of Europe between Eastern Europe, Eastern, Southern Europe, Southern, Western Europe, Western and Northern Europe, Northern Europe. Central Europe is known for its cultural diversity; however, countries in ...

. It is organized into two major areas as follows. The geobotanical area contains an alpine garden,

meadow A meadow ( ) is an open habitat or field, vegetated by grasses, herbs, and other non- woody plants. Trees or shrubs may sparsely populate meadows, as long as they maintain an open character. Meadows can occur naturally under favourable con ...

steppe In physical geography, a steppe () is an ecoregion characterized by grassland plains without closed forests except near rivers and lakes. Steppe biomes may include: * the montane grasslands and shrublands biome * the tropical and subtropica ...

marsh In ecology, a marsh is a wetland that is dominated by herbaceous plants rather than by woody plants.Keddy, P.A. 2010. Wetland Ecology: Principles and Conservation (2nd edition). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. 497 p More in genera ...

, and

pond A pond is a small, still, land-based body of water formed by pooling inside a depression (geology), depression, either naturally or artificiality, artificially. A pond is smaller than a lake and there are no official criteria distinguishing ...

, as well as collections of plants from the

Canary Islands The Canary Islands (; ) or Canaries are an archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean and the southernmost Autonomous communities of Spain, Autonomous Community of Spain. They are located in the northwest of Africa, with the closest point to the cont ...

Caucasus The Caucasus () or Caucasia (), is a region spanning Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is situated between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, comprising parts of Southern Russia, Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan. The Caucasus Mountains, i ...

East Asia East Asia is a geocultural region of Asia. It includes China, Japan, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea, and Taiwan, plus two special administrative regions of China, Hong Kong and Macau. The economies of Economy of China, China, Economy of Ja ...

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern ...

, and

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...

. The systematic and ecological collection includes

crop A crop is a plant that can be grown and harvested extensively for profit or subsistence. In other words, a crop is a plant or plant product that is grown for a specific purpose such as food, Fiber, fibre, or fuel. When plants of the same spe ...

plants,

endangered species An endangered species is a species that is very likely to become extinct in the near future, either worldwide or in a particular political jurisdiction. Endangered species may be at risk due to factors such as habitat loss, poaching, inv ...

, ornamental plants,

rose A rose is either a woody perennial plant, perennial flowering plant of the genus ''Rosa'' (), in the family Rosaceae (), or the flower it bears. There are over three hundred Rose species, species and Garden roses, tens of thousands of cultivar ...

s, and the ''Neuer Senckenbergischer Arzneipflanzengarten'' (New Senckenberg Medicinal Plant Garden, 1200 m²). When the biological institutes of the Goethe University moved to the Riedberg, a new botanical garden, the Wissenschaftsgarten, was built there and the Botanischer Garten became part of the City of Frankfurt in 2012. Some collections, especially of tropical plants, moved to the new garden, but the majority, mainly temperate plants, remained in place.

References

The Botanical Garden at the Website of the city of Frankfurt

Botanischer Garten der Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main

Neuer Senckenbergischer Arzneipflanzengarten

Hermann von Helmholtz-Zentrum entry

BGCI entry

Wikimapia entry
* Alberternst, B., ''Der Botanische Garten der J. W. Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main. Ein illustrierter Führer'', Norderstedt (Books on Demand GmbH), 2005. * Reichard, J. J., ''Enumeratio stirpium horti botanici Senkenbergiani, qui Francofurti ad Mönum est. 8.'', Frankfurt a. Main, 1782. * Rosenstock, Günter, "Das Botanische Institut und der Botanische Garten im Jahre 1966, ihre Gebäude, Betriebseinheiten und Freilandanlagen", pages 57–97 in K. Egle, G. Rosenstock (ed), ''Die Geschichte der Botanik in Frankfurt am Main'', Umschau Verlag, Frankfurt a.M., 1966. {{DEFAULTSORT:Botanischer Garten der Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universitat Frankfurt am Main Frankfurt am Main, Botanischer Garten der Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universitat Goethe University Frankfurt Tourist attractions in Frankfurt Frankfurt am Main, Botanischer Garten der Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universitat

See also

References