Conservatory and Botanical Garden of the City of Geneva
| Conservatory and Botanical Garden of the city of Geneva | |
|---|---|
| Conservatoire et Jardin botaniques de la Ville de Genève | |
 | |
| Type | Public Park |
| Location | Geneva, Switzerland |
| Coordinates | 46°13′30″N 6°08′48″E / 46.22508°N 6.14659°ECoordinates: 46°13′30″N 6°08′48″E / 46.22508°N 6.14659°E |
| Area | 28 hectares |
| Opened | 1817 |
| Operated by | Ville de Genève |
| Status | Open |
| Water | Lake Geneva |
| Vegetation | Lawns, Non-native traditional gardens |
| Connecting transport | road, bus, train, air |
| Landmarks | National Herbarium |
| Facilities | Information centre, Gift shop, Toilets, Shelter, Cafe and Tea rooms |
| Website |
www |
The Conservatory and Botanical Garden of the city of Geneva (Conservatoire et Jardin botaniques de la Ville de Genève) is a museum and an institution of the City of Geneva.
Establishment and location
It was founded in 1817 in a former area of Bastions Park in 1817 by Augustin Pyramus de Candolle. It was relocated to its present location in 1904 and occupies an area of 28 hectares (69 acres) adjacent to Lake Geneva and the park of the United Nations Office at Geneva.
Collections
The botanical garden includes a living collection of 14,000 species of 249 different families from around the world, and a historical herbarium of nearly 6 million botanical samples.[1] The library of over 220,000 volumes
The living collection is divided into several sections: an arboretum, rock gardens and banks of protected plants, medicinal and useful plants, greenhouses, horticultural plants (including a "garden of scent and touch"). The garden also incorporates a zoo dedicated to conservation and the Botanicum (a family space) near the lake.
National classification
The entire garden, including greenhouses, libraries and collections, and two mansions "Le Chene" and "La Console", is registered as a cultural asset of national importance.[2]
Activities
The institution has a special interest in the medicinal plants of Paraguay, with about 5000 known plants thanks to the legacy of the Guaraní people, preserved by the Jesuit missions and the collections of Emil Hassler. The Paraguayan Ethnobotany Project was established in the mid 1990s in collaboration with the Botanical Garden and Zoo of Asunción. This collaborative framework has facilitated the creation of a large herbarium of Paraguayan medicinal plants and the creation of the Centro de Conservación y Educación Ambiental (Center for Conservation and Environmental Education: CCEAM), located within the Botanical Garden of Asunción.[3][4]
Organic status
From 1 January 2015, under leadership of head gardener Nicolas Freyre and Director Pierre-André Loizeau, the Conservatory and Botanical Gardens became 100% organic, the first public garden in Switzerland to formally meet the standards of Bio Suisse. Although previously almost entirely organic, a bachelor student from the Haute École du paysage, d'ingénierie et d'architecture de Genève validated the requirements. In 2017 the garden will be able to display the Bio Suisse 'Bud' certification label on completion of the required qualification period.[5][6]
References
- ↑ "CJB Herbarium". Retrieved 16 April 2015.
- ↑ "L'inventaire édité par la confédération suisse, canton de Genève" [Swiss inventory of the Canton of Geneva] (pdf) (in French).
- ↑ "Exposición de nuestra flora nativa esta abierta al público en el jardín botánico" [Our native flora exhibition is open to the public in the botanical garden] (in Spanish). Municipality of Asunción. 4 May 2006.
- ↑ "Comuna invita a visitar la Exposición Etnobotánica "Nuestras Plantas, Nuestra Gente"" [Community invited to visit the ethnobotanic exhibition "Our Plants, Our People"] (in Spanish). Municipality of Asunción. 8 October 2008.
- ↑ "GE: les autorités souhaitent se mettre au 100 % bio en ce qui concerne tous ses espaces verts" [Geneva: The authorities want to make all public spaces 100% organic] (in French). Radio télévision suisse. 18 March 2015.
- ↑ "Le Jardin botanique est 100% biologique" [The Botanic Garden is 100% organic]. Tribune de Genève (in French). 18 March 2015.
External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Botanical garden of Geneva. |
- "Site des Conservatoire et jardin botaniques" (in English and French).
- "Conservatoire et jardin botaniques" (in French). Ville de Genève.