The
Arboretum Gaston Allard (7 hectares), also known as the
Arboretum d'Angers and formerly the
Arboretum de la Maulévrie, is a municipal
arboretumAn arboretum is a collection of trees. Related collections include a fruticetum , and a viticetum, a collection of vines. More commonly today, an arboretum is a botanical garden containing living collections of woody plants intended at least partly for scientific study...
located at 9, rue du Château d’Orgement,
AngersAngers is a city in the Maine-et-Loire department in north-western France about south-west of Paris. Angers is located in the French region known by its pre-revolutionary, provincial name, Anjou, and its inhabitants are called Angevins....
,
Maine-et-LoireMaine-et-Loire is a department in west-central France.- History :See: AnjouMaine-et-Loire is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on March 4, 1790. Originally it was called Mayenne-et-Loire, but its name was changed to Maine-et-Loire in 1791. It was created from...
,
Pays de la LoirePays de la Loire is one of the 26 regions of France. It is one of the regions created in the late 20th century to serve as a zone of influence for its capital, Nantes, one of a handful so-called "balancing metropolises" ¹...
,
FranceFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
. It is open daily.
The arboretum was begun in 1863 by
botanistBotany, plant science, phytology, or plant biology is a branch of biology and is the scientific study of plant life and development...
Gaston Allard (1838-1918) within the closerie Maulévrie, which was then his home. He continued planting until his death in 1918.
The
Arboretum Gaston Allard (7 hectares), also known as the
Arboretum d'Angers and formerly the
Arboretum de la Maulévrie, is a municipal
arboretumAn arboretum is a collection of trees. Related collections include a fruticetum , and a viticetum, a collection of vines. More commonly today, an arboretum is a botanical garden containing living collections of woody plants intended at least partly for scientific study...
located at 9, rue du Château d’Orgement,
AngersAngers is a city in the Maine-et-Loire department in north-western France about south-west of Paris. Angers is located in the French region known by its pre-revolutionary, provincial name, Anjou, and its inhabitants are called Angevins....
,
Maine-et-LoireMaine-et-Loire is a department in west-central France.- History :See: AnjouMaine-et-Loire is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on March 4, 1790. Originally it was called Mayenne-et-Loire, but its name was changed to Maine-et-Loire in 1791. It was created from...
,
Pays de la LoirePays de la Loire is one of the 26 regions of France. It is one of the regions created in the late 20th century to serve as a zone of influence for its capital, Nantes, one of a handful so-called "balancing metropolises" ¹...
,
FranceFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
. It is open daily.
The arboretum was begun in 1863 by
botanistBotany, plant science, phytology, or plant biology is a branch of biology and is the scientific study of plant life and development...
Gaston Allard (1838-1918) within the closerie Maulévrie, which was then his home. He continued planting until his death in 1918. The property was ceded to the city in 1960, and his former home now houses the Botany Department of the Museum of Natural Sciences of Angers.
Today the arboreum contains an excellent collection of trees: approximately 4,300 specimens represent 1,600
taxa|thumb|270px|[[African elephants]] form a widely-accepted taxon, the [[genus]] LoxodontaA taxon is a group of organisms, which a taxonomist adjudges to be a unit. Usually a taxon is given a name and a rank, although neither is a requirement. Defining what belongs or does not belong to such a...
, including 705 taxa of conifers and 50 of
oakAn oak is a tree or shrub in the genus Quercus , of which about 400 species exist. "Oak" may also appear in the names of species in related genera, notably Lithocarpus...
s, with notable specimens of
Quercus variabilis,
Pseudocydonia sinensis, and
Tilia mongolica. In 1980 the arboretum was augmented with a national collection of
hydrangeaHydrangea is a genus of about 70-75 species of flowering plants native to southern and eastern Asia and North and South America. By far the greatest species diversity is in eastern Asia, notably China, Korea, and Japan...
s, which now contains approximately 750 taxa. Three new gardens have been added: a shade garden (2000 m²), test garden (4000 m²), and garden of the five senses (1200 m²). All told these gardens contain about 20,000 plants.
The arboretum also contains a major
herbariumIn botany, a herbarium is a collection of preserved plant specimens. These specimens may be whole plants or plant parts: these will usually be in a dried form, mounted on a sheet, but depending upon the material may also be kept in alcohol or other preservative...
of more than 350,000 specimens dating from the 19th and 20th centuries.