The "New Royal Horticultural Society Dictionary of Gardening" (1999) points out that among the various kinds of organisations now known as botanical gardens there are many public gardens with little scientific activity, and it cites a more abbreviated definition that was published by the World Wildlife Fund and IUCN when launching the ’’Botanic Gardens Conservation Strategy’’ in 1989: "A botanic garden is a garden containing scientifically ordered and maintained collections of plants, usually documented and labelled, and open to the public for the purposes of recreation, education and research." This has been further reduced by Botanic Gardens Conservation International to the following definition which "encompasses the spirit of a true botanic garden": "A botanic garden is an institution holding documented collections of living plants for the purposes of scientific research, conservation, display and education."
(wikipedia)
Defining characteristics of a botanic garden
• adequate labelling of the plants
• an underlying scientific basis for the collections
• communication of information to other gardens,
institutions,organisations and the public
• exchange of seeds or other materials with other
botanic gardens, arboreta or research
stations
• long term commitment to,and responsibility for,
the maintenance of plant collections
• maintenance of research programmes in plant
taxonomy in associated herbaria
• monitoring of the plants in the collection
• open to the public
• promoting conservation through extension and
environmental education activities
• proper documentation of the collections,
including wild origin
• undertaking scientific or technical research on
plants in the collections
(IUCN-BGCS and WWF 1989,p5)
‘Botanic ga
rdens are institutions holding
documented collections of living plants for the
purposes of scientific, research ,
conserva
t
i
on,
d
isplay and education’
(Wyse Jackson)
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