Botanic Garden

Categories / City Topography/Green Areas/Gardens, Orchards
Categories / Science. Education/Museums
BOTANIC GARDEN (2 Professora Popova Street) originates from the Apothecary Garden (established by order of Tsar Peter the Great). Its overall area was 22.9 ha including 2.5 ha of conservatories and buildings, 16.7 ha of parkland including 145 lots with lawns, trees, and bushes, a rock garden, flower beds, nurseries and water features. German botanist I. Sigesbeck greatly contributed to the creation of the garden (invited to Russia in 1735, in 1736 he published the first catalogue - Primitiae Florae Peteropolitanae). In 1798 the Medical Garden (the former Apothecary Garden) was transferred to the control of Medical Surgical Academy and received the name of Botanic Garden (from 1823, the Imperial St. Petersburg Botanic Garden - the main botanic establishment of Russia). Such eminent scientists as F.B. Fisher, E.L. Regel, R.E. Trautfetter, et al., its collection was added to by botanists and travellers N.S. Turchaninov, A.I. Schrenk, K.I. Maksimovich, N.M. Przhevalsky, V.L. Komarov, A.E. Regel and O.A. Fedchenko, et al. In 1835, a list of seeds was published (Index Seminum), in 1871 - Acta Horti Petropolitani. From the late 19th century Botanic garden accorded practical assistance to agriculture: a station for seed testing was opened in 1877 (the first agricultural experimental institution in Russia), in 1901 it adopted the name of the Central Phytopathological Station. Botanic Garden workers participated in expeditions of the Emigrant Office (1908-18). In 1913, the garden was given the name of Peter the Great, in 1918-25 - the Major Botanic Garden of Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, in 1925 its was recognised as having an All-Union significance. In 1930, it was transferred to the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, from 1931 it has been a part of the Botanic Institute. The closed off ground species collection includes over 7,500 taxons, while the general ground species exposition consists of an arboretum park with over 800 types of trees), an early nursery for nutritive, consumable and medicinal plants, a collection of grass perennials; there is also a garden of perennials, iris, lily and rose gardens. The park complex of the Botanic Garden is a unique monument of landscape architecture, where plants from various countries and continents are represented. Workers of the Botanic Garden conduct research on the introduction and acclimatisation of plants, contribute to the introduction of Russian flora into the garden and the preservation of Russian biological diversity. The staff also support and enlarge existing collections and expositions.

Reference: Императорский С.-Петербургский ботанический сад за 200 лет его существования: (1713-1913) / Сост. В. И. Липский. СПб., 1913. Ч. 1; От Аптекарского огорода до Ботанического института: Очерки по истории Ботанич. ин-та АН СССР. М.; Л., 1957; Растения открытого грунта Ботанического сада Ботанического института им. В. Л. Комарова: Коллекции, экспозиции. СПб., 2002.

G. A. Firsov. Professora Popova St./Saint Petersburg, city, house 2
Императорский С.-Петербургский ботанический сад за 200 лет его существования (1713-1913) / Сост. В. И. Липский. СПб., 1913
От Аптекарского огорода до Ботанического института: Очерки по истории Ботан. ин-та АН СССР. М.; Л., 1957
Растения открытого грунта Ботанического сада Ботанического института им. В. Л. Комарова: Коллекции, экспозиции. СПб., 2002 Komarov Botanical Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences
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1736