The Jardin botanique du col de Saverne (2.5 hectares), also known as the Jardin botanique de Saverne, 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...

 and arboretum

Arboretum

An arboretum in a narrow sense is a collection of trees only. 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 along the Col de Saverne

Col de Saverne

The Col de Saverne is a natural pass in the north of the Vosges mountains, near Saverne, which permits travel between the département of Bas-Rhin, région Alsace and the département of Moselle, région Lorraine.Lines of communication that traverse the Saverne Pass include national highway RN 4 and...

 near Saverne

Saverne

Saverne is a commune in the Bas-Rhin department in Alsace in north-eastern France. It is situated on the Rhine-Marne canal at the foot of a pass over the Vosges Mountains, and 45 km N.W...

, Bas-Rhin

Bas-Rhin

Bas-Rhin is a department of France. The name means "Lower Rhine". It is the more populous and densely populated of the two departments of the Alsace region, with 1,079,013 inhabitants in 2006.- History :...

, Alsace

Alsace

Alsace is the fifth-smallest of the 27 regions of France in land area , and the smallest in metropolitan France. It is also the seventh-most densely populated region in France and third most densely populated region in metropolitan France, with ca. 220 inhabitants per km²...

, France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

. It is open on weekends, and daily in the warmer months; an admission fee is charged.

The garden was established in 1931 by naturalists including botanist Emile Walter (1873-1953). Since 1965 it has been jointly managed by the Université Louis Pasteur de Strasbourg, the town of Saverne, and the garden association; in 2003 the Région Alsace also became a partner.

The garden is located on the Saverne Pass hillside at an altitude of 335 meters, and organized into sectors by plant classification. It describes its indigenous orchid section as the largest in France, with about 20 species; the garden also contains an excellent collection of fern

Fern

A fern is any one of a group of about 12,000 species of plants belonging to the botanical group known as Pteridophyta. Unlike mosses, they have xylem and phloem . They have stems, leaves, and roots like other vascular plants...

s, as well as alpine plant

Alpine plant

Alpine plants are plants that grow in the alpine climate, which occurs at high elevation and above the tree line. Alpine plants grow together as a plant community in alpine tundra.-Alpine plant diversity:...

s and a peat

Peat

Peat is an accumulation of partially decayed vegetation matter or histosol. Peat forms in wetland bogs, moors, muskegs, pocosins, mires, and peat swamp forests. Peat is harvested as an important source of fuel in certain parts of the world...

 bog

Bog

A bog, quagmire or mire is a wetland that accumulates acidic peat, a deposit of dead plant material—often mosses or, in Arctic climates, lichens....

 for carnivorous plant

Carnivorous plant

Carnivorous plants are plants that derive some or most of their nutrients from trapping and consuming animals or protozoans, typically insects and other arthropods. Carnivorous plants appear adapted to grow in places where the soil is thin or poor in nutrients, especially nitrogen, such as acidic...

s. The arboretum occupies one third of the garden area, and contains species from North America

North America

North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...

, Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

, and Asia

Asia

Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...

.

The garden's orchid collections include Aceras anthropophorum, Anacamptis pyramidalis, Bletilla striata

Bletilla striata

Bletilla striata is a species of orchid and the type species of its genus....

, Cypripedium calceolus

Cypripedium calceolus

Cypripedium calceolus is a lady's-slipper orchid, and the type species of the genus Cypripedium.It is a widespread plant worldwide, found from Europe east through Asia to the Pacific Ocean. It is found in open woodland on moist calcareous soils. It is found in continental Europe growing in the...

, Cypripedium formosanum

Cypripedium formosanum

The Formosa's Lady's Slipper or Beautiful Cypripedium is a species of orchid....

, Dactylorhiza maculata

Dactylorhiza maculata

The Heath Spotted Orchid or Moorland Spotted Orchid , is an herbaceous perennial plant belonging to the family Orchidaceae.-Etymology:...

, Gymnadenia conopsea, Himantoglossum hircinum, Orchis militaris, Orchis morio, and Orchis simia

Orchis simia

The Monkey orchid is an orchid species of the Orchis genus. It is known for its pungent odor, which some say is similar to that of feces.-References:...

. Fern collections include Adiantum pedatum

Adiantum pedatum

Adiantum pedatum is a maidenhair fern native to moist woodland in eastern North America.Adiantum aleuticum was once considered a subspecies...

, Asplenium scolopendrium, Athyrium filix-femina

Athyrium filix-femina

Athyrium filix-femina is a large, feathery species of fern native throughout most of the temperate Northern Hemisphere, where it is often abundant in damp, shady woodland environments and is often grown for decoration.The plant is caespitose Athyrium filix-femina (Lady Fern or Common Lady-fern)...

, Blechnum spicant

Blechnum spicant

Blechnum spicant is a species of fern known by the common names Deer fern or hard fern. It is native to Europe and western North America. Like some other Blechnum it has two types of leaves...

, Dryopteris affinis

Dryopteris affinis

Dryopteris affinis is fern native to western and southern Europe and southwestern Asia....

, Gymnocarpium robertianum

Gymnocarpium robertianum

Gymnocarpium robertianum is a fern of the family Woodsiaceae.-Description:Gymnocarpium robertianum has small , deltate, two to three pinnate fronds. Fronds arise from creeping rhizomes and have long, delicate rachis. The sori are borne in round clumps on the underside of the blade and lack an...

, Matteucia struthiopteris, Phegopteris connectilis

Phegopteris connectilis

Phegopteris connectilis, commonly known as Long Beech Fern, is a species of fern native to forests of the Holarctic Kingdom.Unlike its close relative, Phegopteris hexagonoptera, which is terrestrial, this species is often epipetric as well as terrestrial.This species is normally apogamous, with a...

, Phyllitis scolopendrium, and Woodsia obtusa

Woodsia obtusa

Woodsia obtusa is a common rock fern of Appalachia and eastern North America. It prefers a calcareous substrate, but also grows in neutral soils. It may grow on rock faces or in scree....

. Other specimens of interest include Ononis natrix, Pleioblastus nagashima, Saruma henryi

Saruma henryi

Saruma henryi is a species of plant in the Aristolochiaceae family. It is endemic to China.-Source:* China Plant Specialist Group 2004. . Downloaded on 23 August 2007....

, Shibataea kumasasa, and Sinowilsonia henryi.

Its arboretum contains a range of species including Abies cephalonica, Abies cilicica

Abies cilicica

Abies cilicica, or Cilicia Fir, is a species of conifer in the Pinaceae family.It is found in Lebanon, Syria, and Turkey.In 2009 at Berenice Troglodytica, the Egypto-Roman port on the Red Sea, archaeologists found: "two blocks of resin from the Syrian fir tree , one weighting about 190 g and the...

, Acer capillipes

Acer capillipes

Acer capillipes , is a maple in the same taxonomic section as other snakebark maples such as A. pensylvanicum, A. davidii and A. rufinerve...

, Amelanchier lamarckii

Amelanchier lamarckii

Amelanchier lamarckii, commonly known as juneberry, is form of serviceberry shrub. It has white flowers that are star-shaped. Its young berry-like pome fruits are dark-red when young, but become dark-purple when ripe. The fruits are edible and have an apple and sweet flavor. It is widely cultivated...

, Cladrastis sinensis, Crataegus mollis

Crataegus mollis

Crataegus mollis, known as Downy Hawthorn or Red Hawthorn, occurs in eastern North America from southeastern North Dakota east to Nova Scotia and southwest to eastern Texas. This tree inhabits wooded bottomlands, the prairie border, and the midwest savanna understorey.This tree grows to 10–13 m...

, Eryngium giganteum

Eryngium giganteum

Eryngium giganteum, a plant species in the Apiaceae family.- Plant description :Plant height 90–100 cm. Silver-blue flowers 3 to 5 cm open in August and September, it dies after flowering and should be grown as a biennial...

, Liriodendron tulipifera

Liriodendron tulipifera

Liriodendron tulipifera, commonly known as the tulip tree, American tulip tree, tuliptree, tulip poplar or yellow poplar, is the Western Hemisphere representative of the two-species genus Liriodendron, and the tallest eastern hardwood...

, Malus sieversii

Malus sieversii

Malus sieversii is a wild apple native to the mountains of Central Asia in southern Kazakhstan, eastern Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Northern Afghanistan and Xinjiang, China. It has recently been shown to be the sole ancestor of most cultivars of the domesticated apple...

, Photinia davidiana, Picea asperata, Picea omorika, Pinus jeffreyi, Pinus sylvestris, Sequoiadendron giganteum, Sorbus aria

Sorbus aria

Sorbus aria , the Whitebeam or Common Whitebeam is a deciduous tree, compact and domed, with few upswept branches; it generally favours dry limestone and chalk soils. The hermaphrodite cream-white flowers appear in May, are insect pollinated, and go on to produce scarlet berries, which are often...

, and Sorbus reducta.