The Iaşi Botanical Garden, now named after its founder, Anastasie Fătu, , is a botanical garden

Botanical garden

A botanical garden The terms botanic and botanical, and garden or gardens are used more-or-less interchangeably, although the word botanic is generally reserved for the earlier, more traditional gardens. is a well-tended area displaying a wide range of plants labelled with their botanical names...

 located in the Copou Hill neighbourhood of Iaşi

Iasi

Iași is the second most populous city and a municipality in Romania. Located in the historical Moldavia region, Iași has traditionally been one of the leading centres of Romanian social, cultural, academic and artistic life...

, Romania

Romania

Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...

. Established in 1856, and maintained by the University of Iaşi, it is the oldest and largest botanical garden in Romania.

History

The Iaşi 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 Iaşi 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

Palace of Culture (Iasi)

The Palace of Culture is an edifice located in Iaşi, Romania. The building served as Administrative Palace and then Palace of Justice until 1955, when its destination was changed again, being assigned to the four museums nowadays united under the name of Moldova National Museum Complex...

 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.

Nowadays, with more than 10,000 species of plants spanned over 100 hectares, Iaşi Botanical Garden is one of the largest in the world.

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 hectares (11.1 acre) area, with 700 herbaceous
  Herbaceous
  A herbaceous plant is a plant that has leaves and stems that die down at the end of the growing season to the soil level. They have no persistent woody stem above ground...
  
   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 hectares (61.8 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 hectares (9.9 acre) in open air, plus 500 square metres (5,382 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 sightless persons;
• The Dendrologic Section, situated on a versant presenting western general exposition, on 20 hectares (49.4 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 hectares (39.5 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 hectares (11.1 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 hectares (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 4000 square metres (43,055.6 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 hectares (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 hectares (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 hectares (14.8 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 hectares (4.9 acre), a laboratory where students do practical work and scientific research.

External links

• Official site
• Images-360° - A walk through the Botanical Garden of Iasi