Botanical Garden

A botanical garden is a garden containing scientifically ordered and maintained collections of plants, which is usually documented, labelled, and open to the public for the purposes of recreation, education, and research. They are often run by universities or other scientific research organizations and are often associated with research programmes in plant taxonomy or some other aspect of botanical science. The key role is to maintain documented collections of living plants for the purposes of scientific research, conservation, display and education mainly although it depends on the resources solely and availability of interest at particular garden. Gardeners and botanists consist of the staffs mainly in these gardens.

Botanical gardens

There are about 1800 botanical gardens and about 150 gardens are in countries which lie in temperate regions.  Europe has 550 gardens, 150 are in Russia whereas 200 are in North America. All of these gardens attract an increasing number of people which rises approximately about 300 million in a year.  Botanical gardens have a history of exchanging plants through the publication of seed lists (in Latin: Indices Seminae in the 18th century). It was a means of transferring both plants and information between botanical gardens. Hence, this system of transferring information is still continuing today, however the possibility of genetic piracy and the transmission of invasive species has received greater attention in recent times.

BGCI (Botanic Gardens Conservation International), which has the mission “To mobilise botanic gardens and engage partners in securing plant diversity for the well – being of people and the planet” has over 700 members who are mostly in 118 countries and basically support GSPC. They produce a range of resources and publications widely.

Let‘s look into the study of botanical gardens further and their functionality and importance!

History and Precursors

Islamic Spain resembled botanic gardens of the future in early medieval times. The 11th century Huerta del Ray garden of physician and author Ibn Wafid (999-1075 CE) in Toledo. It was later taken over by garden chronicler Ibn Bassal (fl. 1085 CE). He later founded a garden in Seville, most of its plants are being collected in a botanical expedition that included Morocco, Persia, Sicily and Egypt.

Though these ancient gardens shared some of the characteristics of present day botanical gardens, the forerunners of modern botanical gardens are generally regarded as being the medieval monastic physic garden (whose main purpose was to cultivate herbs for medical use as well as research and experimentation) that originated from the decline of the Roman Empire at the time of Emperor (742-789 CE). The founding members of early botanic gardens were members of the medical profession.

Roles and functions of Botanical garden

The main functions of botanical gardens are as follows:

• To organise educational programmes for creating environmental awareness among youths and train teachers about environmental education.
• They are the core center of endangered and rare species. 
• Bringing universities and others to conduct research on environmental biology etc. 
• To preserve and maintain less attractive and abandoned ornamental plants.
• To build Museums and Nature centers to focus on destruction of the tropical temperate ecosystem.
• For initiating the idea of botanical garden types across various countries and collecting their biota, before such systems are lost in science and to effectively take measure on their preservation.
• It acts as therapy which is basically known as Garden therapy for eye-sight, mental -stress etc. 
• It acts as a site of relaxation to many people as it provides a suitable environment to relieve stress and strain in human bodies.
• Elderly people find a great solace in these lovely gardens.
• Very frequently these gardens arrange flow shows where exotic as well as endangered species are portrayed which helps people gain knowledge about them.
• Nowadays, the landscape gardens are very popular and have significantly a charm in them which add beauty to monuments like libraries, museums, sportsgrounds etc.
• Lastly, the flora and fauna is conserved in their natural habitat because of these botanical garden types.

Some of India’s most famous Botanical Gardens

• Acharya Jagadish Chandra Bose Indian Botanic Garden, Howrah
• Government Botanical Garden,Udhagamandalam
• Llyod’s Botanical Garden,Darjeeling
• Botanical Garden of Forest Research Institute, Dehradun
• Lalbagh Botanical Garden,Bengaluru
• National Botanic Garden, Lucknow
• Assam State Botanical Garden,Guwahati
• Jawaharlal Nehru Botanical Garden, Gangtok

Herbarium

The significance of herbarium in a botanical garden is the primary data source of dried and labelled plant specimens which is arranged in such a way that it allows for easy retrieval of information and access to archival storage. It acts as a library and many botanical garden lists have this information stored in a biological form. They are pressed, dried and labelled plant specimens. In most of the vascular plants which are lichens, fungi and few bryophytes and other vascular plants are preserved in a different manner. For example – The Duke Herbarium (DUKE) has their specimens over time through field work collection and research mainly through their staff and students but also by gifting and exchange with other herbaria worldwide.

Conclusion

Botanical gardens have always been a part of interest by many people and their values today. Nowadays, it focuses on the emphasising factors of global preservation of endangered and vulnerable species and creating awareness about the importance of “plants” and also the threat to the Earth’s ecosystems from human population. However, scientific research and education forms a core element which surrounds these gardens as they act as an information bank for many students and highly qualified individuals to continue with their studies further.