Munich Botanical Garden

Munich Botanical Garden, German Botanischer Garten München-Nymphenburg, botanical garden founded in 1914 by the German botanist Karl von Goebel in Munich. The garden’s vast array of greenhouses, completed in 1958, includes 17 for display and 8 for service functions. The palm house is particularly notable. Other significant greenhouse collections are composed of alpine plants, insectivorous plants, cacti, African succulents, Crassula, and Mesembryanthemeae. The 20-hectare (50-acre) outdoor gardens contain about 10,000 plant species. Although of great intrinsic botanical importance, the plants are arranged for maximum aesthetic effect. The various plantings consist of a large rock garden featuring alpine species, an extensive systematic garden for instruction on plant evolution, several attractive display gardens for the public, and a series of wild gardens in which both indigenous and foreign species, including annuals, perennials, bulbs, and trees and shrubs, are grown. The garden also maintains the outstanding herbarium of Bavaria (the Botanical State Collection [Botanische Staatssammlung München]), which contains about 3.2 million specimens of dried plants and fungi.