From the outside, you can’t always say that the green oasis spread over half of the Ostankino district is a botanical garden. It is already very far from ideal and emasculated gardens, in which trees plant twig to twig, and intricate landscape compositions are created from flowers. In GBS, everything is natural and organic: Japanese sakura coexist with pines familiar to any Russian, and Chinese poplars - with lilacs.
Many visitors are unanimous in their opinion: GBS RAS resembles, rather, a forest park than a garden. And, nevertheless, this park is not simple: you will pass through the massif of the forest - and you will see an ennobled rose garden, you will turn in the other direction - and you will come out to a giant glass greenhouse. There is no need to crowd all the plants in one place - in the Main Botanical Garden, on its more than three hundred hectares, there is clearly where to roam. And what secrets can be found in it, we will now tell.
Voices of Russian history
View of the building of the laboratory building of the Main Botanical Garden of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Tsitsina and the pond. Photo: Shutterstock.com
Part of the panorama of the Botanical Garden. Photo: Shutterstock.com
The building of the laboratory building of the Main Botanical Garden of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Tsitsina. Photo: Photobank Moscow-Live.ru
Commemorative plaque. Photo: Photobank Moscow-Live.ru
By itself, the Main Botanical Garden of the Russian Academy of Sciences is a young institution. Next year he will turn only 75 - agree, not so much for such an impressive garden and park ensemble. April 14, 1945 is considered his official date of birth, the “father” is Academician Nikolai Vasilyevich Tsitsin, who became its first director (the garden still bears his name). It was from this time that outlandish plants brought from different parts of the world began to appear in the capital.
And yet it cannot be said that in the middle of the last century the botanical garden arose out of nowhere. In fact, scientists and gardeners received a real gift - pristine forests, ready to accept new "overseas" neighbors. And even though some plants in the garden grow only a few decades, the local forests are the oldest. The first mention of them was found in the chronicles of 1584. Walking along the quiet alleys of the garden, try to feel all the grandeur of these places - by the way, Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich himself, the father of Peter I, once hunted here.
Gering flowers
New greenhouse. Photo: AGN "Moscow"
Exposition of the Old Orangery. Photo: Shutterstock.com
Let's go from the oak forest to the southwest and go out to the buildings of the New and Old greenhouses. The first - a kind of futuristic version of the old Russian "barrel" - is still closed to the public. But the Old stock greenhouse, located in the building of the 50s, is still working. It was it that at one time became the first home for tropical and subtropical plants delivered to the USSR after the war. According to official information, plants purchased from German nurseries in the period from 1945 to 1949 became the basis for the collection. While the Moscow greenhouse was being built, they were in Potsdam's Sanssouci, where they were carefully guarded by a botanical group headed by Corresponding Member of the Academy of Sciences P. A. Baranov. And now a semi-official detail: most of these plants were once owned by Hermann Goering, who, by the way, was not only the chairman of the Reichstag, but also the chief huntsman of Germany. During the years spent in the highest echelons of Nazi power, he managed to accumulate an extensive collection of the rarest plants brought from different parts of the world, including magnificent orchids that became the pride of the Botanical Garden.
Subsequently, the collection of the Stock Greenhouse was replenished through expeditions to India and the countries of the Indian Ocean basin and, of course, through exchanges with other botanical gardens around the world. As a result - the largest collection in terms of the number of items in the GBS and one of the largest collections of tropical and subtropical plants in the country. The space inside the Old Greenhouse is divided into "geographical" expositions: Tropics of the Old and New Worlds, Dry Subtropics and Wet Subtropics, bringing together thousands of heat-loving plants from all over the world - from the Mediterranean to Japan. Among the oldest and most unusual is a 150-year-old giant from the genus Encephalarthos. This group of plants grew on Earth as early as the Jurassic period (during the era of dinosaurs!) and "survived" to this day almost unchanged. Isn't this time travel?
Nature from around the world
GBS RAS is a place in which the whole world, at least the botanical one, literally fits. It's no joke: in Soviet times, scientists went on expeditions every year - either to the Far East, then to India, or even to Cuba. Of course, not all of them take root, but the higher the value of foreign samples. It is not so easy to identify them in the forest more often, but be sure: in the same arboretum, spread over 75 hectares, many trees and shrubs from Central Asia, China, Japan, North America and the Mediterranean are hidden.
However, most of the flora of the botanical garden is domestic and from the countries of the former USSR. Reproducing it exactly and, most importantly, preserving it is one of the first priorities of the institution's employees. We can find a clear result of this work in the eastern part of the garden, closer to VDNKh: here, on an area of 30 hectares, there is a collection of the GBS flora department, divided into separate expositions. Five of them are geographical, with characteristic plants and, interestingly, the landscape of a particular area. So, walking along one territory, you can admire the nature of the European part of Russia, Siberia, the Far East, Central Asia and the Caucasus. Can you figure out where everything is without a clue?
Garden of Continuous Bloom
Manchurian Walnut in the Botanical Garden. Photo: Shutterstock.com
The "Garden of Continuous Bloom" is also known as the living calendar of plants, and for good reason. Such a romantic name fully justifies itself: from early spring to late autumn, there is a real riot of colors here. As if by magic, trees, shrubs, grasses and flowers alternate shades - from spring transparent white to autumn red-yellow. The effect of such a natural brush again lies in the skill of man: just plants that bloom in the same period are grouped.
You can walk around the garden endlessly, and if you enter it from the side of the Stock Greenhouse, then at the end you will find a worthy climax - a sprawling and multi-stemmed Manchurian walnut, as if descended from the pages of ancient legends.
Japanese garden
Photo: Sergey Vedyashkin / AGN "Moskva"
Photo: Alexander Avilov / AGN "Moscow"
During the cherry blossom season, people line up at the trees to take pictures. Photo: Sergey Vedyashkin / AGN "Moskva"
In autumn, the Japanese garden is no less beautiful. Photo: Shutterstock.com
From the Manchurian walnut to the northeast - and here we have, perhaps, the most popular exposition of the Main Botanical Garden. Every year, the Japanese Garden attracts tens or even hundreds of thousands of visitors - most of all, of course, in the spring, when a huge area of almost three hectares is painted in soft pink. Yes, it's cherry blossoms.
GBS boasts the most "northern" Japanese garden in the world. It was opened in 1987 by architect K. Nakajima and with the support of the Japanese Embassy. The work was carried out for more than one year, the approach is the most thorough. Building materials from the Land of the Rising Sun, an authentic 150-year-old pagoda, which today is in the center of the landscape composition, a variety of flora and even a separate house for the tea ceremony (alas, you can survive this experience only two days a year) - every detail reflects the oriental philosophy and purely Japanese character. By the way, in the 80s, the first sakura in the garden was planted by the then Minister of Foreign Affairs of Japan, Shintaro Abe. Almost thirty years later, a seedling grown from the seeds of this tree will be planted by his son, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
The Japanese garden is open during the warm season, from April to October. Entrance to the territory is paid, guided tours are held.
revived rose garden
View of the rose garden. Photo: Shutterstock.com
If in spring everyone keeps their finger on the pulse in anticipation of cherry blossoms, in summer the main object of attraction for visitors is the rose garden. A magnificent (and fragrant!) park with fountains and an elegant layout is located in the very south of the GBS. They broke it in 1961, and popularity came immediately: it's hard to believe, but then for ordinary citizens, roses in Moscow were a real curiosity. They say that the rosary collection was also received by the USSR from defeated Germany - as a reparation.
However, this colorful oasis did not remain a symbol of a triumphant and well-organized country for long: in the 90s, the rose garden fell into a terrible decline. Part of the flowers died, another part went into someone's vases. The park was restored to its former glory only in 2011 - half a century after the first opening. Today, the rose garden has collected in one area about 600 varieties of roses from different countries - from England to China. It is traditionally open from May to October. Paid entrance.
You can walk in the botanical garden all year round (the exception is the work of expositions, which falls on the warm season), but, of course, the peak of GBS popularity occurs in spring-summer, when plants begin to bloom. The easiest way to get to the territory is from the Vladykino metro station or by bus from the VDNKh metro station. Most of the entrances to the garden are located from Botanicheskaya Street.
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VDNH
52 hectares - park area
150.4 ha - exposition
52 ha - area of protected oak forest ha
Scheme of the Main Botanical Garden
A - main entrance
B - entrance from the side of the Ostankino hotel
C - entrance from the street. Komarova
D - entrance from the side of Art. metro station "Vladykino"
1 - arboretum
2 - protected oak forest
3 - rose garden
4 - shady garden
5 - garden of coastal plants
6 - garden of continuous flowering
7 - exposition of plants of natural flora
8 - Japanese garden
9 - exposition of cultivated plants
10 - areas of natural forest
11 - laboratory building
12 - stock greenhouse
13 - new greenhouse
Main Botanical Garden named after N.V. Tsitsin RAS (Moscow)- the largest botanical garden in Europe, has the richest collections of plants representing the diverse flora of almost all continents and climatic zones of the globe. Founded April 14, 1945 by Nikolai Vasilyevich Tsitsin. Living collections include 8,220 species and 8,110 plant forms and cultivars—a total of 16,330 taxa. On the basis of the collections, using modern techniques of landscape architecture, botanical expositions of plants have been created: the natural flora of Russia, the former USSR, an arboretum, an exposition of tropical and subtropical plants, flower-decorative and cultivated plants.
Story
April 14, 1945 is considered the founding date of the Main Botanical Garden. It is located on the site of the unique natural forests of Moscow. Thanks to the scientific activity of the garden workers, fragments of the Erdenyevskaya grove as part of the Ostankino oak forest and the Leonovsky forest have been preserved. These territories are first mentioned in the chronicles of 1584. They belonged to the princes Cherkassky. In the hunting grounds of which Alexei Mikhailovich (father of Peter I) loved to hunt. Then these lands passed into the possession of the Sheremetevs, who received the "village of Ostashkovo" with the estate as a dowry of Varvara Cherkasskaya, who married Pyotr Borisovich Sheremetev. Count Nikolai Sheremetev, the owner of Ostankino, turned the part of the grove closest to the estate into an English park. For which an English gardener was hired, who sought to achieve the natural character of the landscape. On the territory of the park, 5 artificial ponds were dug, which were fed by the water of the river Kamenka, one of the tributaries of the Yauza. The main tree species of the park were oak, linden and maple. And of the shrubs, hazel, honeysuckle and viburnum prevailed.
Long before the official date of foundation, there was a program to create a Botanical Garden. This is evidenced by the preliminary designs of 1940 and 1945, developed by the architect I. M. Petrov. This program existed within the framework of the general urban development plan for Moscow. According to the first draft of 1940, the northern border of the garden was to run along the Okruzhnaya Railway, and from the south - along the modern Akademika Korolev Street. At the same time, capturing the territory of the entire Marfinsky complex in the west. And in the east, stretching to Prospekt Mira. According to the project of 1945, the garden was limited to Botanical Street from the west, and to the east - Agricultural Street. At the same time, the northern and southern borders remained unchanged.
By the decisions of the Moscow City Council and the decisions of the Presidium of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, in the period from 1945 to 1969, the lands were transferred to the Main Botanical Garden, on which the main landscape and botanical expositions are currently located. In 1998, 331.49 hectares were transferred to the garden for unlimited use.
Structure
In total, the Main Botanical Garden has 13 scientific departments and laboratories, one branch, as well as one group.
Structural scientific divisions
The main botanical garden named after N. V. Tsitsina RAS in 2011
- department of flora
- department of dendrology
- department of tropical and subtropical plants
- department of ornamental plants
- department of cultivated plants
- plant protection department with quarantine service
- distant hybridization department
- laboratory herbarium
- plant physiology and biochemistry laboratory
- laboratory of plant physiology and immunity
- laboratory of landscape architecture
- plant biotechnology laboratory
- department of implementation of scientific and technical developments
- Cheboksary branch (Cheboksary Botanical Garden)
Non-structural scientific divisions
Group of Chemosystematics and Evolutionary Biochemistry of Plants
In addition, the Garden has scientific, technical, scientific support and production structural units.
Collection funds
Exposition of plants of natural flora
Six botanical and geographical expositions have been created on an area of 30 hectares: "European part of Russia", "Caucasus", "Central Asia", "Siberia", "Far East" and "Useful plants of natural flora".
stock greenhouse
The stock greenhouse of the GBS RAS traditionally acts as a plant donor for the collections of tropical plants of other botanical gardens in Russia and the countries of the former Soviet Union. The basis for this collection was received in 1947 from the Sanssussi greenhouse (Potsdam, Germany). The collection of representatives of the Orchid family consisted of 107 hybrids Paphiopedilum, 120 hybrids Cattleya and 140 orchid species of other genera, 91 of which have been preserved in the collection to this day. In recent years, the collection has undergone significant changes and has been expanded and supplemented. Currently, the collection includes 1120 species, subspecies and forms of orchids from 222 genera, as well as 300 hybrids.
| On this vegetative range, owned by the Academy of Sciences, dogs feel like masters: the park is endless and almost homeless. A company of two dozen dogs is fed by pensioners walking here. Animals sleep under collectible plants and (...) make sure that people do not walk on the lawns: turning off the paved path onto the grass, visitors risk hearing the menacing grunts of "voluntary environmentalists" |
Notes
Literature
- The main botanical garden named after N. V. Tsitsina - Museum of Wildlife / A. S. Demidov, Z. E. Kuzmin, V. G. Shatko. Scientific Council of the Russian Academy of Sciences for the study and protection of cultural and natural heritage. - M.: GEOS, 2007. - 64 p. - (Natural and cultural heritage of Moscow).
Links
Botanical garden in Moscow (Moscow, Russia): detailed description, address and photo. Opportunities for sports and recreation, infrastructure, cafes and restaurants in the park. Reviews of tourists.
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The Botanical Garden of the Academy of Sciences in Moscow is the largest in Europe, with the richest collection of open and closed ground plants, numbering over 17 thousand species and varieties. It was founded in 1945. Today, its territory has more than 330 hectares of land.
There are only three botanical gardens in Moscow. The oldest of them was founded in 1706 by Peter I after the establishment of the Pharmaceutical Order and was used for growing medicinal herbs. The second is the botanical garden of Moscow State University on Sparrow Hills. The third, the largest, was opened in 1945 on the territory of Ostankino Park.
The main task of the Botanical Garden is the conservation of biological diversity. The arboretum of the garden is almost 2000 species of trees and shrubs from all over the world, in the expositions "Rosary", "Garden of Continuous Flowering", "Garden of Coastal Plants" and "Shadow Garden" a chic collection of flower and ornamental plants is collected, in the greenhouse there are a number of species and forms tropical and subtropical plants exceeded 6,000.
The garden is really huge. At the time of its opening, its area was 360 hectares - about twice the entire area of the Principality of Monaco.
It is, in fact, more like a park than a botanical garden. There are almost no signs with names near the plants, and visitors, despite the warnings placed around the territory, still sit on the grass, sunbathe and ride bicycles or roller skates. So, at first glance, the botanical garden is more like a wonderful place for outdoor recreation - perhaps in somewhat more exotic conditions. If you are more interested in signed and systematized rare plants, it would be wiser to go to the Apothecary Garden on Prospekt Mir for them.
The main botanical garden named after N. V. Tsitsina RAS in Moscow is the largest in Europe, you can walk on it or ride bicycles, studying the numerous plates with the names of plants.
Informative excursions are held in the garden, but you can also wander here on your own - studying the tablets with the names of plants, wandering into the dense forest, feeding squirrels, relaxing by small ponds and breathing in oxygen-saturated air atypical for the outskirts of Moscow. The only thing to keep in mind when visiting the garden is that this is not an ordinary city park, and respect for the unique flora is especially important here.
There is one rather important point that many visitors miss. The garden can be accessed both from VDNKh and from the Vladykino metro station, however, if you do not bother to look for a detailed map before visiting, you may need quite a lot of time to find the entrance. It is surprisingly well hidden and, as a rule, none of the passers-by knows exactly where it is.
Academy of Sciences of the USSR (1939), VASKhNIL (1938; vice-president in 1938-1948). Twice Hero of Socialist Labor (1968, 1978); Laureate of the Lenin Prize (1978) and the Stalin Prize of the second degree (1943).
Biography
Born December 18, 1898 in Saratov. Coming from a poor peasant family, as a teenager he worked at a factory in Saratov.
During the years of the civil war, Nikolai Vasilievich was a military commissar, defending the Soviet Republic with weapons in his hands. The Soviet government opened the way to education for the young worker. He studied at the workers' faculty, and then at the Saratov Agricultural Institute.
Graduated from the Saratov Institute of Agriculture and Melioration (1927).
After graduation, he worked at the Saratov Agricultural Experimental Station. Communication with such outstanding breeders as N. G. Meister, A. P. Shekhurdin, P. N. Konstantinov determined the further direction of the young scientist’s work. From the very beginning, he was interested in the problem of creating more productive varieties of the main food crop - wheat - based on distant hybridization. While working as an agronomist at one of the departments of the Gigant grain farm in the Salsky district of the Rostov region, Tsitsin crossed wheat with wheatgrass and for the first time received a wheat-couch grass hybrid, which was the beginning of his work in this direction. He widely involved in crossing wild and cultivated plants that had gone through independent evolutionary paths that determined their genetic isolation. Research carried out by scientists in this direction has made it possible to create new varieties of plants.
In 1931-1937 he was the head of the laboratory of wheat-couch grass hybrids organized by him, in 1938-1948 he was the chairman of the State Commission for Variety Testing of Agricultural Crops under the USSR Ministry of Agriculture, in 1940-1957 he was the head of the laboratory of remote hybridization of the USSR Academy of Sciences, since 1945 he was the director of the Main Botanical Garden of the USSR Academy of Sciences.
Chairman of the Board of the Council of Botanical Gardens of the USSR Academy of Sciences. The main works are devoted to the distant hybridization of plants. By crossing wheat with couch grass, he received a new type of wheat (Triticum agropynotriticum). Author of varieties of wheat-couch grass hybrids. Honorary member of a number of academies of socialist countries. President (1958-1970) and Vice-President (since 1970) of the Soviet-Indian Society for Friendship and Cultural Ties.
Member of the CPSU (b) since 1938. Delegate of the XXth Congress of the CPSU. Deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of the 1st, 3rd and 4th convocations.
Scientific works
- - Chief Editor
Awards and prizes
- Stalin Prize of the second degree (1943).
- Lenin Prize (1978)
- Twice Hero of Socialist Labor (1968, 1978).
- He was awarded five orders of Lenin (according to other sources - seven orders), the Order of the October Revolution, the Order of the Red Banner of Labor, as well as medals.
Perpetuating the memory of N.V. Tsitsina
Memorial plaque to Academician N.V. Tsitsinu installed on the House on the embankment
Memorial plaque to Academician N.V. Tsitsinu is installed at the main building of the Botanical Garden. N. V. Tsitsina RAS
Stock greenhouse of the Main Botanical Garden named after N. V. Tsitsin RAS("Moscow Tropics") is a unique "museum" of living tropical and subtropical plants, where you can see and get acquainted with trees, herbs and shrubs from different continents.
The greenhouse exists as a scientific and educational center, on the basis of which work has been launched to study and preserve the biological diversity of tropical and subtropical plants. Its collections include several thousand species, including rare and endangered ones, obtained from the botanical gardens of post-war Germany and as a result of exchange with other botanical gardens in different countries, as well as those collected by the staff of the Botanical Garden on expeditions. Despite such a long and dry name and serious tasks, in reality, the Stock Greenhouse looks warm and homely - like a large indoor garden, and anyone can visit it.
It is especially pleasant to visit this place in winter: regardless of the weather outside, the temperature is always maintained in the greenhouse, and it will be a great find for those who yearn for summer on gloomy winter days!
exposition
The greenhouse complex of the Botanical Garden of the Russian Academy of Sciences includes two buildings: the Old Stock Greenhouse and the New Stock Greenhouse, however, only one of them is available for visiting - the Old one, which has been operating since 1954.
The space inside the greenhouse is divided into several exposition sections built according to the geographical principle. Each of them maintains its own temperature regime and humidity level throughout the year, as close as possible to the natural habitat of plants.
. Tropics of the Old and New Worlds: here you can see various types of ficuses and palms, huge bananas, cocoa trees, papaya and even a real baobab.
. Dry subtropics are represented by plants of the Mediterranean, South Africa, Madagascar, Australia, North and South America. In this section, you can see various types of succulents, xerophytes and cacti, aloe, acacia and eucalyptus trees, as well as a collection of azaleas and conifers.
. Humid subtropics divided into 3 separate exposition sections. The first includes plants from the Canary Islands, South Africa, Japan, continental East Asia and South America: laurels, heathers and dracaena, cypress and feijoa are available for inspection. The second showcases plants from Australia, Tasmania and New Zealand, while the third shows a large collection of rhododendron and camellia varieties.
Branches do not just show plants to visitors, they exist as a kind of full-fledged ecosystems typical for the declared region. Between them, concrete or gravel paths are laid, along which you can walk on your own or with a tour, and in some places, under the branches of exotic trees, there are even cozy benches.
The main part of the exhibition is permanent, but there are also temporary exhibits that change places depending on the season or are taken out to visitors during the flowering period. In addition, during the mass flowering of plants of a certain type, an exhibition can be arranged in the greenhouse: for example, blooming orchids, which annually attract a large number of visitors.
It is worth noting that the exposition is replete with reference plates with general information about the flora of the presented tropical and subtropical regions, however, the plants are mostly not signed, so it is better to visit it with a guided tour.
History of the Stock Greenhouse
The Old Stock Conservatory was opened in 1954.
According to a widespread legend, which has no documentary evidence, but looks quite reliable, the basis of the first collection of the greenhouse was the botanical collection of Hermann Goering, a prominent statesman and military figure of the Third Reich. Goering went down in history as the Chairman of the Reichstag and the Reich Minister of Aviation of Germany, but there were other positions in his biography, including the Imperial Forest Warden of Germany. Being a great lover of nature, Goering collected an extensive collection of orchids and other plants, which, after the end of the Great Patriotic War, was taken to the Soviet Union.
Subsequently, the collection was expanded through exchanges with other botanical gardens around the world, as well as during expeditions to tropical and subtropical regions.
Gradually, the collections became crowded in the old building, and in 1992 the construction of the New Stock Greenhouse began, much larger and more technologically advanced than the previous one. However, due to various reasons, the construction was soon frozen and resumed only in 2002. The building was completed in 2016, however, it was never opened to the public; when the new greenhouse will become available to the townspeople is unknown.
Working hours and order of visiting
The exposition of tropical and subtropical plants in the Old Stock Greenhouse is open all year round. You can visit it individually or with a guided tour.
On weekends, free sightseeing tours are organized for visitors without an appointment (subject to the purchase of a ticket to the greenhouse). It is also possible to order thematic excursions: "Plants in myths and legends", "Ferns and gymnosperms", "The most-most: tall, ancient, long-lived", "Useful tropical and subtropical plants: food, technical, medicinal, volatile and decorative" and others.