Iași Botanical Garden
| Anastasie Fătu Botanical Garden | |
|---|---|
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| Type | Botanical garden, Public park |
| Location | Iași, Romania |
| Area | 100 ha (250 acres) |
| Created | 1856 |
| Operated by | Alexandru Ioan Cuza University |
The Iași Botanical Garden, now named after its founder, Anastasie Fătu, (Romanian: Grădina Botanică Anastasie Fătu), is a botanical garden located in the Copou Hill neighbourhood of Iași, Romania. Established in 1856, and maintained by the Alexandru Ioan Cuza University, it is the oldest and largest botanical garden in Romania.
History
The Iași Botanical Garden was founded by Anastasie Fătu, on a terrain bought with his own funds in the immediate vicinity of the Râpa Galbenă. Stimulated by the interest expressed for the Anastasie Fatu's garden, the Physicians and Naturalists Society founds, in 1873, a second Botanical Garden, round about the residence of this society, that, at the present moment, is the Natural History Museum. In 1870, the leadership of the University of Iași take into consideration the problem of the organization its own botanical garden, on a terrain situated behind the old building of the University, where, nowadays, there are the buildings of the Grigore T. Popa University of Medicine and Pharmacy. In 1900, at the repeated insistences (since 1895) of the professor Alexandru Popovici, the University asks the terrain from the back of the actual Palace of Culture to organize there a new botanical garden. The repeated attempting to obtain the necessary funds to realize this garden has remained uselessly. In 1921, Alexandru Popovici organizes a new botanical garden on a terrain situated in the back of the new University building. This garden served the botanical education over 40 years, until 1963-1964, when it was eventually moved to its current location, in Copou Hill, under the supervision of professor Emilian Ţopa.[1]
Nowadays, with more than 10,000 species of plants spanned over 100 hectares, Iași Botanical Garden is one of the largest in the world.[2]
Grounds
The Garden is organized in 12 areas, with different gardens and plant collections:
- The Systematic Section, addressing especially to pupils and students, on 4.5-hectare (11-acre) area, with 700 herbaceous and lignaceous taxa are cultivated and distributed according to their natural similarities in divisions, orders and families;
- The Romanian Flora and Vegetation Section, is the largest section with 25-hectare (62-acre) area, and is divided in six geographical sub-sections: Moldova, Transylvania, Banat, Muntenia, Oltenia, Dobrogea, representing, on the vertical, the main types and zones of vegetation from Romania and, on the horizontal, the flora and vegetation of each Romanian historical province;
- The Ornamental Section, covering 4-hectare (9.9-acre) in open air, plus 500 square metres (5,400 sq ft) in the greenhouses complex and solariums, destined both to the culture of the species requesting warmed spaces and the culture of certain exotic species, has a subsection for the blind persons;
- The Dendrologic Section, situated on a versant presenting western general exposition, on 20-hectare (49-acre) area, with collections of trees and shrubs which have been grouped together taking into account the genera that are including the respective species and also the ecological requests of the plants;
- The World Flora Section, a general image of the flora from different geographic regions of the Earth, with plants cultivated on 16-hectare (40-acre), and grouped taking into account their origin and distributed according to the natural and mixed landscape architecture styles;
- The Biologic Section, presents, on an area of 4.5-hectare (11-acre), aspects of the vegetal world organisation, aspects of plants evolution and adaptation to the environmental conditions and the role of humans in the directing of the evolutive process in spirit of nature conservation and environment preservation;
- The Useful Plants Section, is divided in nine subsections, and presents approximately 1.5-hectare (3.7-acre) of valuable plants species used or probably to be used in pharmaceutical, alimentary, cellulose and paper industry or textile industry;
- The Greenhouses Complex Section, on about 4,000 square metres (43,000 sq ft), includes 12 greenhouses, which shelter plants collections (approximate 2600 taxa) native especially of sub-tropical, tropical and equatorial zones of the globe, from all the continents;
- The Rosary Section (the rose–garden), on 1.7-hectare (4.2-acre), groups together approximately 600 roses varieties, distributed in horticultural groups, taking into account their proportions, forms and colours;
- The Memorial Plants Section, on 3-hectare (7.4-acre), presents a series of plants related to important events of the human existence (the birth, the marriage and the death), a series of species related to some national personalities, to the life of the heroes from Romanian people, species presenting names inspired by various deities that, in the ancient Indo-European mythologies could have had an important role in the appearance, development and evolution of human society;
- The Recreative Section, with an approximately 6-hectare (15-acre) area, offers to visitor's sight the relaxing scenery of the vineyards and the orchards situated on the neighbouring hills;
- The Experimental Section, includes four sub-sections and represents, on 2-hectare (4.9-acre), a laboratory where students do practical work and scientific research.
See also
References
External links
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Coordinates: 47°11′13.74″N 27°33′23.61″E / 47.1871500°N 27.5565583°E