University of Oxford Botanic Garden
The University of Oxford Botanic Garden is the botanical garden of the University of Oxford . Established as a herb garden in 1621 , it is the UK's oldest botanical garden and one of the world's oldest scientific gardens. Today it comprises over 8,000 different plant species , including representatives of 90% of the vascular plant families , making it one of the most diverse and compact plant collections in the world.
The Harcourt Arboretum , south of Oxford, is also part of the Botanical Gardens.
history
The garden was laid out in 1621 by Henry Danvers as a herb garden on the banks of the River Cherwell , "to promote science and to honor nature" (English "to promote the furtherance of learning and to glorify nature" ). He donated £ 5,000 (around £ 750,000 today) which was used for the garden and much of the surrounding walls. Part of the garden was on the site of the medieval Jewish cemetery, which has not been used since the Jews were expelled from England in 1290. Around 40,000 truckloads of earth, rock and dung had to be procured to build the garden.
construction
Walled Garden
Most of the hardy plants are housed in long, narrow and rectangular beds and sorted according to the classification scheme of the taxonomy . In this part of the garden centers include acanthus - Amaryllis - Arum - barberries - rushes - Plumbago - Flower Nettle - nettle - Commelina - Crassula - Verbena - Enzian - Foxtail - bluebells - , Buttercups , dog poison , St. John's wort , pokeweed , knotweed , flax , lilies , mallow , poppy seeds , evening primrose , nightshade , carnation , Easter lucei , primrose , rape leaf , diamond , roses -, blush , sourgrass , irises , pennies , saxifrage , cranesbill , violets , plantain , loosestrife , bindweed , milkweed , yam and rockrose , umbels , basket , cruciferous and labiates , Legumes , peonies and grasses .
Among other things, the endangered Euphorbia stygiana , of which only a few wild plants still exist, is grown here.
In the south-western part there is a collection of medicinal plants, which is divided into eight beds for cardiology , oncology , infectious diseases , gastroenterology , dermatology , hematology , neurology and pulmonology .
In the northwest of the garden, the elderberry iris grow every year in May, as well as some species of irises that do not grow anywhere else.
Greenhouses
There are seven greenhouses, each of which thematizes different seasons, regions or genera and includes over 1200 plant species.
The Conservatory is a replica of the wooden greenhouse built in 1893. Seasonal plants such as primroses , Abutilon species, fuchsias and slate plates grow there . In addition, numerous exhibitions take place here.
Plants grow in the alpine house that do not find optimal conditions outside the greenhouse. The plants change depending on the season.
Various ferns from all over the world grow in the fern house, including antler ferns , climbing ferns and the magnificent thin fern .
The tropical lily house is the oldest greenhouse in the garden, the water basin has existed since 1851 and was created by the naturalist and professor at the University of Charles Daubeny at the time . Various water lily plants and jungle bells as well as economic plants such as bananas , sugar cane , rice and real papyrus grow there .
Another greenhouse houses a large collection of carnivorous plants . This includes passive plants such as fatty herbs as well as mobile plants such as the Venus flytrap .
The largest greenhouse in the botanical garden is the palm house. In addition to palm trees , citrus plants , pepper bushes , sweet potatoes , papaya , olive trees , ginger , coconut palms , cocoa trees and oil palms also grow here .
In dry house ( arid house ) plants among other numerous grow out dry or arid parts of the world, cactus and succulent .
Lower Garden
In the remaining part of the Botanical Garden, the Lower Garden , are decorative and themed gardens such as the rockery , the bog garden , flower discounts that Herbstbeet, a water garden and the Mertonbeet ( Merton border ).
Harcourt Arboretum
The Harcourt Arboretum is about 10 km south of Oxford near the village of Nuneham Courtenay and houses most of the scientific trees in the Botanical Gardens. The population of conifers was laid out by the landscape architect William Sawrey Gilpin and today forms the heart of the arboretum together with giant sequoias and Chilean araucarias .
The approximately 150 acres (0.61 km²) complex includes 40,000 m² of English forest and 150,000 m² of flower meadow . In late spring the azaleas and rhododendrons are in full bloom. Also Atlantic bluebells grow here in large numbers.
Literary meaning
In the 1960s, the professor of the visited Christ Church College , Lewis Carroll and Alice Liddell and her sisters regularly the Botanical Garden. The stories they were told on boat trips later formed the basis for the children's book Alice in Wonderland . The lily house can be seen in the background of John Tenniel's illustration "The Queen's Croquet-Ground".
Also JRR Tolkien , author of the novel The Lord of the Rings , spent a lot of time in the gardens. Rumor has it that a black pine was a model for the Ents . The tree, which was often the target of tourists as Tolkien's tree , had to be felled in 2014.
In 1945 novel, Brideshead Head of Evelyn Waugh Botanical Garden is mentioned in a quote: "Oh, Charles, what a lot you have to learn! There's a beautiful arch there and more different kinds of ivy then I knew existed. I don't know where I should be without the Botanical gardens. "
In the series of novels His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman , a bank is the theme of the two parallel worlds of the protagonists Lyra Belacqua and Will Parry. In the last chapter of the trilogy, the two promise each other to sit on the bench for an hour at Midsummer Festival each year in order to feel each other's presence despite their different worlds.
Web links
- Official website (English).
- Virtual tour of the botanical garden
- Information Harcourt Arboretum (Engl.)
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b 5 of the UK's oldest gardens you can still visit on bt.com on May 16, 2018, accessed on February 9, 2019
- ↑ a b c d University of Oxford Botanic Garden on discoveroxfordshire.com, accessed February 9, 2019
- ↑ Botanic Garden bids farewell to iconic black pone on ox.ac.uk from July 30, 2014