Munich Botanical Garden In Spring And Autumn

Munich Botanical Garden. Flower garden

Botanical Gardens are living museums that change their exposition based on inspiration from nature and are beautiful at any time of the year. Therefore, in Germany it is customary to sell not only single tickets, but also season tickets for years ahead, which are quite humane. And on the site there is always an advertisement-invitation to admire the next seasonal wonder. The Munich Botanical Garden is no exception.

Compared to the Italian botanical gardens, it is very young. Founded in 1809 by decree of the Bavarian king Ludwig Maximillian. It was created by the landscape architect Friedrich Ludwig von Skell, who came from a family of artists and became famous for the project of the Nymphenburg park.

Ritter von Schrank, a member of the Jesuit order, and also a major botanist and expert on insects, who described many plant species (his official abbreviation after the name of the species, many probably saw - "Schrank"), was engaged in the formation of the botanical collections. He also became the first director of the botanical garden of Munich.

Initially, the garden was located in the very center and occupied a very small area. In plan, it resembles the letter D. Pretty soon it became cramped, and the so-called New Botanical Garden was founded next to the residence of the Bavarian kings of Nymphenburg, and the old garden turned into a cozy city park in the very center of the city, not far from the railway station.

In 1909, due to the growth of the city and the associated air pollution, a New Botanical Garden was planned in front of the then Munich gateway at Nymphenburg and opened in May 1914 after only a three-year construction period starting in 1910.

Munich Botanical Garden. The grave of the first director of the garden

Munich Botanical Garden. Alley

Ludwig Ullmann was responsible for the construction of the greenhouses of the new botanical garden, which were built in 1910-1912. With a total area of approximately 4,500 m², Ullmann realized the transparent and filigree iron-wood-glass architecture, these greenhouses are among the last large factory showrooms to be established across Europe since the early 19th century. Together with Ludwig von Stempel, Ulmann also built the main building of the Botanical Garden, then the location of the Botanical University.

Karl Immanuel Eberhard von Göbel became the first director of the Botanical Garden. He had a knighthood and was well known to the Russian botanical community. Since 1892 he was a full member, and since 1908 - an honorary member of the Moscow Society of Naturalists, and since 1924 - a foreign corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, which in 1925 became the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. His works on the morphology of higher plants, in particular "Organography of plants" and "Comparative history of the development of plant organs" (Organographie der Pflanzen (1898) and Vergleichende Entwickelungsgeschichte der Pflanzenorgane (1883), are still relevant today.

In general, the memory of the scientists who worked there is anxiously preserved in the garden, and the garden alleys are named after former directors, and not only.

Munich Botanical Garden. Alley of one of the directors of the garden

The new botanical garden is rightfully considered one of the attractions of Munich, which is interesting not only for botanists. The townspeople love to come here with their whole families and spend the whole day among plant rarities from all over the world, annually about 400 thousand people visit it. It covers an area of 21.2 hectares and is currently one of the largest botanical gardens in Germany. Its owner and founder is the Federal Republic of Germany represented by Staatlichen Naturwissenschaftlichen Sammlungen Bayerns, which literally translates as the State Natural Science Collections of Bavaria. Since 1966 it has been merged with the nearby botanical collection and the botanical institute (Institut für Systematische Botanik) of the Ludwig Maximilian University.

Currently, there are about 16,000 plant species in the Botanical Garden, which are included either in themed exhibitions or in the landscape and landscape part. The set of thematic expositions is standard: food and medicinal plants, a systematic section, a rose garden.

Munich Botanical Garden. Rose garden

The systematic plot represents plants of various families, and not only the most common ones. An ideal place to teach botany to students. This area has such an abundance of species that it can be viewed for hours, reading labels and memorizing plants. In spring, a fabulous collection of forsythia and tree-like peonies meets.

Chelone glabra

Naked licorice (Glycytthiza glabra)

Near the site of cultivated plants is a site with protected, that is, rare in Germany, plants. These areas mimic natural communities. there are swamps, dry meadows, alpine gravel zones and shady areas.

Already in January, the blooming daphne opens its flowers, in May Frauenschuch and Türkenbund follow in the darker part. On rocky areas, the tenacious grows and silvery dryad flowers form extensive carpets. In summer, the small pond heats up quickly and becomes covered with flowers and lily pads. Currently, more than 200 plant species are protected in Germany, and only by thoroughly studying biology can they be effectively conserved.

The landscape part includes the so-called large pond with coastal and aquatic plants, a luxurious alpine slide, which, as practice has shown, is most spectacular in spring and early summer, a rhododendra grove, and an arboretum. Naturally, for the beauty of rhododendrons, you need to come in spring, but the arboretum with its various plants is good at any time of the year.

Munich Botanical Garden. Alpine slide

Munich Botanical Garden. Cyclamens

Munich Botanical Garden. Pine

The arboretum, a collection of woody plants from around the world, occupies a relatively large area west of the front area. Groups of trees and shrubs are located very naturally in colorful meadows, however, in accordance with family ties and origin. In addition to mighty beeches, exotic tulip trees and rare magnolias with huge flowers, there is a huge variety of conifers. Sections of large meadows remain unmown, allowing plants to reproduce on their own, without the help of gardeners. Here in the summer there are exhibitions of sculptures under the motto "Culture of nature in the Botanical Garden".

Munich Botanical Garden. Arboretum

Munich Botanical Garden. Magnolia

The marvelous ceremonial site deserves special delight. The two rectangular systems of ridges are separated by lilies, and at the corners are emphasized by powerful gunners. It is drawn up depending on the season. In the spring, absolutely fabulous magnolias and numerous bulbous plants bloom here, and in the summer it is the time for the summer. The special charm of this part of the garden will come with the decoration of different parts in different colors. A particularly beautiful view opens up from the cafe located on the border of the rose garden. All this splendor is framed by pergolas with climbing plants and works of the Nymphenburg porcelain manufactory, whose products are known far beyond Germany.

Munich Botanical Garden. Parterre in spring

Munich Botanical Garden. Sculpture from Nymphenburg porcelain

The ecological and genetic department is comfortably located between the restaurant and the front flower garden. Plants of different habitats are located here. I was especially impressed by the blueberries with numerous fruits that simply hung to the visitors, but no one tore them. Insectivores and some aquatic plants are housed in graceful greenhouse houses. The purpose of this section is to bring visitors an initial knowledge of the laws of heredity. Small swamps and lawns are beautifully simulated here. But they are so small that they do not interfere with the perception of the beauty of the parterre at all.

Munich Botanical Garden. Blueberry

Munich Botanical Garden. House with carnivorous plants

Garden maintenance virtually eliminates the use of chemical remedies. This is due to the fact that many insects live here, including bees. For example, in 1997/99 there were at least 79 species of wild bees, and in 2015/17 there were already 106 species. The increase was mainly due to imported thermophilic species. They are actively monitored, in particular, they study the attractiveness of various types of plants, as well as different colors of flowers.

Munich Botanical Garden. Vegetable plot

The Botanical Garden is currently home to 45 species of native birds, 27 of which breed. All of this was punctually examined, calculated and documented during a study in the spring and summer of 2018 as part of a research project for students at the Ludwig-Maximilian University. The great variety of birds is attributed to the variety of habitats and the abundance of insects in the Botanical Garden. In general, a fairly stable ecosystem with a large species diversity is obtained.

Munich Botanical Garden. Ecological site

Munich Botanical Garden. Garden cabbage on a vegetable plot

The greenhouses are home to humid tropical plants, cool tropical mountain forests and deserts. In the humid tropical greenhouse, tropical butterflies are released at certain times, and visitors can admire another wonder of nature.

Along with the main territory of the botanical garden, this institution also has an experimental station, founded in 1901 and located at an altitude of 1860 m in Schahen, in the Wetterstein mountains. It serves to study alpine plants in their natural environment.

The garden hosts numerous lectures, events, and celebrations. Every year in July, the Botanical Garden offers a pink show in the Great Greenhouse area with a subsequent sale, and in the local shop you can buy seeds of plants, albeit quite expensive. A visit to the botanical garden can be an unforgettable page in your visit to the Bavarian capital, no matter what season you get there.