Liberec Botanical Garden

Greenhouse of the Botanical Garden in Liberec

The Liberec Botanical Garden ( Czech : Botanická zahrada Liberec ) is a scientific facility in Liberec (German Reichenberg ) and the oldest of its kind in the Czech Republic. It was created in 1876 and moved to a new location that is no longer used in 1895. Its early development goes back to the Association of Friends of Nature in Reichenberg .

The area is now home to around 9,000 species of plants (7,500 species in the greenhouses and 1,500 species outdoors). An octagonal aluminum construction with nine pavilions was financed by the city, with considerable support from the state government. 155 million crowns were invested in the renovation of the botanical garden.

Location and transport links

The Botanical Garden is about 2 kilometers from the center of Liberec in a north-easterly direction and can be reached by tram lines 2 and 3 from the “Botanická-ZOO” stop. The city's zoological garden is in the immediate vicinity.

The area of the botanical garden covers about 1.5 hectares.

Structure of the plants

The Liberec Botanical Garden consists of ten pavilions, in which numerous collections of orchids and cacti, ferns, tropical plants, camellias over two hundred years old, an exhibition of freshwater fish and a marine aquarium (with 9,000 liters of water) can be seen. Recently, the collection has been expanded to include a collection of carnivorous plants that has attracted worldwide attention. The founder of this scientific collection and current director of the garden, Miroslav Studnicka , built up this plant collection as part of an international exchange. She received an award in Ghent in 1995 .

Outdoors

In the open air (a total of 1500 plant species) there is a rosarium , a large alpinum with small lakes and waterfalls, an oriental garden opened in July 2002, wet bile plants (system of 73 pools with more than a hundred plants), a corner with Japanese maples ( since spring 2017) and a rustic garden (since spring 2017).

Pavilions / greenhouses

Nine exhibition pavilions in the shape of a crystal gland and designed by the architect Pavel Vaněček give an insight into the flora of tropical and subtropical areas and other areas. Another greenhouse with the exhibition pavilion L was opened in 2014. Around 7,500 plant species are housed in the greenhouses. With the ten exhibition pavilions, the greenhouse area is around 4,400 m².

The following topics will be shown in the pavilions:

Pavilion A (entrance area)
- lower floor: aquariums, seed exhibition
- upper floor: succulents and cacti
Pavilion B
- lower floor: marine aquariums
- upper floor: dry Africa and Madagascar - deserts, semi-deserts, bonsais , orchids, welwitschia
Pavilion C: Australis - Presentation of the Australian flora
Pavilion D: carnivorous plants
Pavilion E: Neotropic plants from the tropics of America
Pavilion F: Large cacti
Pavilion G
- lower floor: Palaeotropical - tropical Asia and Africa (Giant banana trees, hibiscus, a climbing palm, petite dragon trees , and of course bamboos or, for example, as often bred in households ficus )
- upper floor: orchids
Pavilion H: primeval plants - ferns, climbing ferns, giant horsetail, sago palm ferns
Pavilion I: Flowering plants - for example bicentennial camellias
Pavilion L: Water lily pavilion, especially for plants from the Seerosengewächse family (main attraction: the largest water lily in the world, Victoria amazonica or Royal Victoria , which has been blooming here regularly since 1956 and was discovered by the Bohemian botanist Thaddäus Haenke )

The botanical garden has nine further greenhouses with a total of 1400 m², each with its own microclimate. These contain special collections and are not accessible to tourist visitors.

Around 50,000 people visit the garden every year.