Jardín Botánico Canario Viera y Clavijo
Jardín Botánico Canario Viera y Clavijo is the full name of the botanical garden on the Canary Island of Gran Canaria . "Jardín Botánico Canario" stands for "Botanical Garden of the Canaries", while the addition of "Viera y Clavijo" honors the universal scholar José Viera y Clavijo .
The Viera y Clavijo botanical garden is located in the northeast of Gran Canaria in Tafira Alta , about 7 km southwest of the capital Las Palmas de Gran Canaria . So it is inland from Las Palmas, a few kilometers from Sta. Brígida .
history
The founding of this botanical garden can almost be described as the life's work of the Swedish-Spanish botanist Erik Ragnar Svensson (1910–1973). Svensson searched for a long time for the optimal location for a botanical garden in the Canary Islands, which can house as many different endemic plant species of the Canary Islands as possible at the same time. He finally found it on a steep slope of the Barranco de Guiniguada near Tafira Alta , with waterfalls and natural rock caves. Then, from 1952, work began on laying out the garden; In 1959 the Jardín Botánico Canario Viera y Clavijo was opened. Svensson became the first director of the Botanical Garden. After his death in 1973, David Bramwell succeeded him in 1974 .
description
The garden is home to many of the 500 or so plant species endemic to the Canaries and through research it also provides help for conservation programs. The garden has had a seed bank since 1983, in which, among other things, the seeds of around 400 tree species endemic to the Canaries and other Macaronesian islands are stored.
The Viera y Clavijo Botanical Garden is around 27 hectares in size. Significant parts of the complex are the Jardín de las Islas ("Garden of the Islands"), the Jardín de Cactus y Suculentas ("Garden of cacti and fat plants", with about 2,000 exhibited species of fat plants), the Jardín Macaronésico Ornamental ("Macaronesian ornamental garden ") And El Jardín Escondido (" The Hidden Garden ", greenhouse). Also worth mentioning are El Pínar ("The Pine Grove ") and Bosque de Laurísílva ("Laurel Forest ").
At the “Fountain of the Wise” ( La Fuente de Los Sabios ), European botanists (including Philip Barker Webb and the German Carl August Bolle ) who have researched and made accessible the flora of the Canary Islands are honored.
The gardens are open to visitors all year round.
Web links
- Website of the Jardín Botánico Canario Viera y Clavijo (Spanish)
- Flickr photo stream of the Jardín Botánico
Coordinates: 28 ° 3 ′ 49 ″ N , 15 ° 27 ′ 48 ″ W.