What are the functions of botanical garden?

Answer 1

The general public may not always have a clear understanding of botanical gardens or their function. A botanical gardens recreational value, often high, stands subordinate to botanical research and instruction 15. Traditionally botanical gardens have worked in a broad range of concerns including: plant exploration, reforestation, establishment of nature preserves, agricultural research, publishing, and original research in botany 6,15,16, but most important is conservation and education 6.

"The tropical and subtropical botanic gardens of South America should be important centers for research and education, and should play a very important role in the exploration and search for promising plants, in the recognition and conservation of species in danger of extinction, and in the establishment of reserves and protected areas 6."

Some botanic gardens in developing countries, such as the Bogor Botanic Gardens in Java and the Singapore Botanic Gardens in Malaysia, have well rounded programs that include plant breeding and propagation, ongoing research in plant biology and taxonomy, educational displays, and training courses. "Botanic Gardens in China serve four main functions which can profitably be adopted by other gardens, particularly in developing countries. First, they provide new plants of economic importance to society, including medicinals, ornamentals, trees for reforestation, plants for industry, fruits, and cash crops. Second, they collect and keep plants for study of growth, adaptability, and economic and genetic characteristics. Third, they disseminate cultural and scientific information about plants to the general public. And fourth, they collect and maintain endangered and rare plants and investigate methods of conservation in natural habitats 16."

One way of promoting botanical gardens in Ecuador, and other developing countries, is by means of establishing bilateral or multilateral agreements with botanical gardens of other regions of the world for training of personnel, exchange of information, and research support 6. In 1987, the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN), established the Botanic Gardens Conservation Secretariat (BGCS). The purpose of the BGCS is "to encourage the botanical gardens and arboreta of the world to work together as a global network for conservation." Another purpose of the BGCS is to help establish botanical gardens in developing tropical countries, where the richest botanical diversity resides, and having the most need for conservation efforts, but where the fewest gardens are located. Most botanical gardens are located in the temperate, industrialized countries.

Herbariums are collections of dried plants, some of which were collected alive, but have since become extinct. Seed banks often preserve seeds in cryogenic storage labs designed to preserve seeds for up to 100 years or longer, before having to regenerate them by growing them out. But botanical gardens conserve collections of living green plants.

Botanical gardens can help maintain the genetic diversity of plants that cannot easily be preserved as frozen seeds, or in tissue culture. Seeds of many tropical fruit and timber trees do not remain viable long, or survive freezing. Tissue culture techniques do not work, or haven't been developed yet for some plants. Botanical gardens are important sites for the conservation of recalcitrant plants, that must be preserved as living specimens. 16

In 1981, the New York Botanic Garden established the Institute of Economic Botany to investigate underutilized plants with economic potential in the tropics. Botanic gardens have long been involved in introducing economic plants to new regions and conserving their genetic diversity 16.

Botanic gardens can contribute to the future of agricultural productivity through the conservation and distribution of the many promising but underutilized and neglected food, medicinal, and industrial crops, and wild relatives of crops, which are used in plant breeding to impart resistance to drought, pest and diseases and to adapt crops to other adverse environmental conditions. Kew Gardens seed bank in England receives material of wild relatives from collecting missions supported by the International Bureau of Plant Genetic Resource (IBPGR), an agency of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). Since most of our crops were domesticated in the tropics and subtropics, gardens in developing tropical countries can play an important role in the conservation of minor crops and the germplasm of wild relatives of our cultivated crops. 16

"Several botanic gardens have taken the initiative in conserving the genetic diversity of certain tree crops. The Calcutta Botanic Gardens and the botanic garden of the University of Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur maintain germplasm collections of cultivated citrus species and their near relatives 16" The Fairchild Tropical Garden in Miami, with over 150 species of tropical fruit and tree crops, has recently established the Fairchild Gardens Tropical Fruit Program, with the purpose of distributing high yielding cultivars of tropical fruit trees to developing tropical countries.

The Kahanu Garden on Mauai maintains collections of breadfruit and coconut. The Pacific Tropical Botanical Garden at Lawai, Kauai, has collections of fruit trees important to subsistence agriculture and commerce in tropical countries, and the Lyon Arboretum of the University of Hawaii in Honolulu maintains 112 taxa of economic plants 16.

Java's Bogor Botanic Garden established the Cibinong satellite garden, in 1980, to propagate tropical fruit trees for the national agricultural extension service. The 40 hectare garden maintains small collections of many local fruiting species, and is projected to grow to 150 hectares to accommodate more. "In 1982, the Bogor Botanical Garden negotiated an accord with the Central Institute for the Development of Science and Technology." Bogor landscaped the institute's new 350 hectare science city complex at Serpong with indigenous plants, and Bogor was given a substantial new area for conservation of fruit and spice germplasm. "Chemical analysis of the fruit will be conducted in laboratories at Serpong." 16

The Singapore Botanic Gardens has provided many of the trees and shrubs for Singapore's Garden City Program. Singapore is today one of the world's most aesthetically pleasing cities with numerous tree lined avenues and highways. Over four million trees have been supplied to the Parks and recreation Department since 1970. Singapore Gardens is now propagating native fruits for planting in parks and along roads so that citizens can enjoy both shade and food. 16

In Hawaii, the Wahiawi Botanic Garden is occupied by rapidly disappearing wild species from the mountains of Central America. The Ho`omaluhia garden contains endangered species from forest of Malaysia, Melanesia, Hawaii, and Africa. 16

A computer database developed by the Botanic Gardens Conservation Secretariat has located more than 6,000 endangered plants in botanical gardens, including several previously thought to be extinct 14. The toromiro, Easter Islands only tree, previously thought to be extinct, has been found growing in a botanical garden 96. In November, 1988 the botanic garden at Brest, France used the last two surviving specimens of Ruizia cordata, which had become extinct in the wild, to reestablish the plant in it's native home, on Reunion Island in the Indian Ocean 14.