Australian National Botanic Gardens
Australian National Botanic Gardens (ANBG) is the name of the botanical garden in the Australian capital Canberra . It is administered by the Australian Ministry of the Environment and Heritage Sites and specializes in the flora of Australia . The garden offers extensive opportunities for plant researchers and cultivates endangered native plant species.
history
The first plans to set up a botanical garden were made in 1933. Two years later, the framework conditions were defined: the garden should not only please the eye, but also serve research right from the start. For this purpose, a large area was made available on the eastern slope of Black Mountain next to the future Australian National University .
In September 1949, Prime Minister Ben Chifley and Sir Edward Salisbury, director of the Royal Botanic Gardens in London, symbolically planted the first tree. Over the next two decades, the site gradually took on its present form. Visitors were admitted from 1967 and the official opening took place in October 1970 by Prime Minister John Gorton . In 1978 the Canberra Botanic Gardens got their current name. In 1985 the visitor center was opened. An area of 90 hectares is reserved for the botanical garden on Black Mountain, but only 40 hectares of this have been used. The execution of the prepared expansion plans depends on the available financial resources.
The collection
The garden is divided into sections devoted to a specific theme. The plants are grouped according to their taxonomy or are grouped into ecological groups as they occur in nature. More than 5500 species are cultivated.
The following sections are available:
- Rainforest watercourse: Plants from the rainforests on the east coast of Australia
- Rock garden: plants from desert and mountain regions
- Flora in the sandstone formations of the Sydney region
- Mallee (double stemmed eucalyptus )
- Silver trees such as Banksia , Waratah and Grevilleeae
- Myrtle plants such as cylinder cleaner , Leptospermoideae and myrtle heather
- Eucalyptus meadow with around a fifth of all eucalyptus species
- Acacias
research
The National Herbarium is located in the ANBG and has the largest collection of pressed and dried plant specimens in Australia; it is not open to the public. It is operated in cooperation with CSIRO , as part of the research center for plant biodiversity . The herbarium participates in the development of the “virtual Australian herbarium”, an internet-based catalog with biological information on six million plant species. The ANBG also maintains several large plant databases and a photographic archive. The library is open to students and the public by prior arrangement.
Web links
Coordinates: 35 ° 16 ′ 44 ″ S , 149 ° 6 ′ 33 ″ E