Sunday, November 23, 2008

Botanical Garden, Bogor, West Java

The Bogor Botanical Gardens are located 60 km south of the capital of Jakarta in Bogor, Indonesia. The botanical gardens are situated in the city center of Bogor and adjoin the Istana Bogor (Presidential Palace). The gardens cover more than 80 hectares and are said to be the inspiration of Sir Stamford Raffles who was governor of Java from 1811-1816.






The extensive grounds of the presidential palace were converted into the gardens by the German-born Dutch botanist, Professor Casper George Carl Reinwardt. The gardens officially opened in 1817 as 's Lands Plantentuin ('National Botanical Garden') and were used to research and develop plants and seeds from other parts of the Indonesian archipelago for cultivation during the 19th century. This is a tradition that continues today and contributes to the garden's reputation as a major center for botanical research.

The Bogor Botanic Garden, Indonesia's first and foremost botanical garden, is 87 hectares of beautifully kept trees, plants flowers, lawns and ponds within a busy expanding city of 300,000 people. It is also a world famous institution for research and conservation that has developed over many years and is continuing to do so. The garden is an important part of Bogor city providing not only employment but a large recreational area for local residents, visitors from Jakarta and many passing tourists.

These four gardens have internationally important collections of plants, and while Bogor has plants from all over the world, Cibodas is notable as having a collection of plants found in cool, high altitude environments, with Purwodadi having many plants dependent upon more seasonal climate of East Java, and the high altitude garden in Bali with a large collection of conifers and Indonesian montane species.

Today the garden contains more than 15,000 species of trees and plants located among streams and lotus ponds. There are 400 types of exceptional palms to be found along the extensive lawns and avenues, helping the gardens create a refuge for more than 50 different varieties of birds and for groups of bats roosting high in the trees. The bats can be easily detected by the noise they make while competing for space under the canopies. The orchid houses contain some 3000 varieties.


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