Botanical Garden - Role and Functions

Role and Functions

Many of the functions of botanical gardens have already been discussed in the sections above, which emphasise the scientific underpinning of botanical gardens with their focus on research, education and conservation. However, as multifaceted organisations all sites have their own special interests. In a remarkable paper on the role of botanical gardens Ferdinand Mueller (1825–1896), the director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Melbourne (1852–1873), stated that "in all cases the objects must be mainly scientific and predominantly instructive". He then detailed many of the objectives that were being pursued by the world's botanical gardens in the middle of the 19th century, when European gardens were at their height. Many of these are listed below to give a sense of the scope of botanical gardens' activities at that time, and the ways in which they differed from parks or what he called "public pleasure gardens":

  • availability of plants for scientific research
  • display of plant diversity in form and use
  • display of plants of particular regions (including local)
  • plants sometimes grown within their particular families
  • plants grown for their seed or rarity
  • major timber (American English: lumber) trees
  • plants of economic significance
  • glasshouse plants of different climates
  • all plants accurately labelled
  • records kept of plants and their performance
  • catalogues of holdings published periodically
  • research facilities utilising the living collections
  • studies in plant taxonomy
  • examples of different vegetation types
  • student education
  • a herbarium
  • selection and introduction of ornamental and other plants to commerce
  • studies of plant chemistry (phytochemistry)
  • report on the effects of plants on livestock
  • at least one collector maintained doing field work

Botanical gardens must find a compromise between the need for peace and seclusion, while at the same time satisfying the public need for information and visitor services that include restaurants, information centres and sales areas that bring with them rubbish, noise and hyperactivity. Attractive landscaping and planting design sometimes compete with scientific interests — with science now often taking second place. Some gardens are now heritage landscapes that are subject to constant demand for new exhibits and exemplary environmental management.

Many gardens now have plant shops selling flowers, herbs and vegetable seedlings suitable for transplanting; many, like the UBC Botanical Garden and Centre for Plant Research and the Chicago Botanic Garden, have plant breeding programs and introduce new plants to the horticultural trade.

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