Tbilisi Botanical Garden
The Tbilisi Botanical Garden ( Georgian თბილისის ბოტანიკური ბაღი ) is the "Central Botanical Garden of the Georgian Academy of Sciences ". It is the largest botanical garden in the southern Caucasus and was the largest in the Soviet Union . It is located in the southwest of the Georgian capital Tbilisi at the foot of the Narikala fortress . It is over 128 hectares.
history
In 1827, an earthquake wreaked havoc on the city, including the Narikala fortress. Parts of the citadel had to be dismantled and from 1845 onwards, building rubble and excavated soil was used to create the botanical garden on the site of the 400-year-old royal fortress garden - known as the Seidabadi Garden . It is located on the slope of the Sololaki mountain ridge in the Legwtachewi gorge (Eng. Fig tree gorge ) 420 to 680 meters above sea level. Medicinal plants were grown there as early as 1809, for which a number of stone-paved terraces and footpaths were laid. The valley is crossed by a river with a picturesque waterfall.
A few years after its foundation, it became known for the most beautiful orchids in the Russian Empire . Under the direction of the German botanist and landscape architect Heinrich Scharrer , the garden was significantly expanded between 1861 and 1889. He built the first greenhouses in the 1870s, including one for tropical and subtropical plants, and built the Botanical Museum in 1886. The first catalog of seeds in the garden, which recorded 457 woody and herbaceous plants, goes back to him. His successor, Adolf Christian Roloff, intensified botanical research from 1902 and made more international contacts.
After the October Revolution , the garden fell into disrepair due to lack of money and was only systematically rebuilt after 1945. In the 1980s, he had a large fleet of vehicles and his own apartment building for employees. Since 1943 he has been subordinate to the Academy of Sciences.
present
This botanical garden is now home to around 3,500 species and varieties. Its main collection area is an arboretum , the Caucasian flora , rare and endangered plant species, and a biological reserve.
The arboretum includes the Pinetum, founded in 1898, with fir trees ( Abies ) from all over the world. There are about 1000 tree species and herbaceous plants . Many of them are 150 to 200 years old. The tree rarities in the Botanical Garden include the 180 to 200 year old Celtis caucasia (16 m high, 0.85 m diameter), the Zelkova carpinifolia (32 m high, 0.82 m diameter) and the Pinus pityusa (31 m high, 0.91 m diameter). You can see for example Ginkgo biloba , the Cedrus deodara , the Cupressus sempervirens f. pyramidalis and the Juglans regia .
Around 700 of the plant species in this botanical garden come from Georgia and the southern Caucasus. Over 370 of them are on the Red List of Endangered Species and have been systematically collected since the 1970s. These include Osmunda regalis , Astragalus caucasicus , Globularia trichosantha , Populus euphratica , Tulipa biebersteiniana , Iris lasica , Iris iberica , Berberis iberica , Quercus imeretina , Pinus pityusa , Betula raddeana , Arbutus andrachne and the Phillyrea decora .
The Botanical Garden has a research institute with several departments for plant introduction and reintroduction, applied botany , floral culture and a library. It has 56 employees, 36 of whom are scientists.
This botanical garden is also a member of the World Botanical Gardens International Association (WBGIA) and is linked to 150 botanical gardens via the Index Seminum international. In 2000, the first Georgian-German collecting project was a joint collecting trip with the Botanical Gardens of Bonn and Munich in Georgia.
Individual evidence
- ↑ The name means: "the invincible"
- ^ Zizischwili, Irakli: Tbilisi - Architectural Monuments and Art Museums . Aurora, Leningrad 1985, p. 81-85 .
literature
- Katie Campbell: Challenges on the Silk Route: The Botanic Garden in Tbilisi, Georgia. In: Historic Gardens Review. No. 7, spring 2001.
- Jimšer Kereseliże, ML Loriia, Manana Elbakiże: Tbilisi Botanic Garden 365. Central Botanical Garden, Tbilisi 2001, ISBN 9992889985 .
- MA Goglishvili: The central (Tbilisi) botanical garden of the Academy of sciences of the Georgian SSR (a brief history). Gogil, Tbilisi 1986.
Web links
- Jimsher Kereselidze: Botanical Garden Tbilisi: The oldest botanical institution in the Caucasus and its strategy for plant conservation (PDF, English; 12 kB)
- Photos of the Tbilisi Botanical Garden
Coordinates: 41 ° 41 ′ 10 ″ N , 44 ° 48 ′ 27 ″ E