Meise Botanic Garden
Belgium · Europe
About
Meise Botanic Garden (Dutch: Plantentuin Meise; French: Jardin botanique de Meise), until 2014 called the National Botanic Garden of Belgium (Dutch: Nationale Plantentuin van België; French: Jardin botanique national de Belgique), is a botanical garden located in the grounds of Bouchout Castle in Meise, Flemish Brabant, just north of Brussels. It is one of the world's largest botanical gardens, with an extensive collection of living plants and a herbarium of about 4 million specimens. The current garden was established in 1958 after moving from central Brussels; the former site is now the Botanical Garden of Brussels.
Meise Botanic Garden contains about 18,000 plant species — about 6% of all the world's known plant species. Half are in greenhouses, the other half, including cultivated and indigenous plants, are outdoors. The Index Herbariorum code assigned to this botanic garden is BR, which is used when citing housed specimens. The botanic garden's mission statement specifies increasing and spreading "the knowledge of plants" and contributions to "the conservation of biodiversity". Research at the garden is primarily conducted on Belgian and African biodiversity (including plants, fungi, myxomycetes, and diatoms).
Meise Botanic Garden was property of the Belgian government, but after several years of negotiations, it was eventually transferred to the Flemish Community effective 1 January 2014. The French Community still has its own employees and representation in the board of directors. The plants, library, etc. remain property of the state, but are given as commodate to the Flemish Community.
Adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)。Photography via Wikimedia Commons.