Batumi Botanical Garden

Batumi Botanical Garden 

one of the largest botanical gardens in the USSR. It is located near the railroad station Zelenyi Mys, 9 km from Batumi. The garden occupies 111 hectares of hilly land, composed partially of red soils. The garden was founded in 1912 by the Russian botanist and geographer A. N. Krasnov, and following his plan, was laid out according to the geographical landscape principle. Krasnov considered the main task of the garden to be the acclimatization of economically valuable subtropical plants and their introduction into cultivation in the southern regions of Russia. After the establishment of Soviet rule in Georgia, the Batumi Botanical Garden began to develop intensively. By a resolution of the USSR Sovnarkom (Council of People’s Commissars), of July 30,1925, the Batumi Botanical Garden was recognized as the leading scientific establishment of the USSR in the development of subtropical crops—including tea and citrus fruits—on the Black Sea coast of the Caucasus. In its work, the Batumi Botanical Garden pays great attention to the introduction into cultivation of valuable agricultural, forest, essential-oil, decorative, and other subtropical plants. The Batumi Botanical Garden consists of the following floristic sections: Transcaucasian humid subtropic, New Zealand, Australian, Himalayan, East Asian, North American, South American, Mexican, and Mediterranean. The collection of live plants comprises more than 5,000 species, varieties, and forms, among them approximately 2,000 species of trees and shrubs. There are five scientific departments: plant introduction, floriculture and decorative horticulture, selection of subtropical plants, plant physiology and biochemistry, and botany. The institution publishes Izvestiia Batumskogo botanicheskogo sada (Proceedings of the Batumi Botanical Garden, since 1936).

REFERENCES

Mandzhavidze.D. V., and A. B. Matinian. “Batumskii botanicheskii sad.” Biulleten’ Glavnogo botanicheskogo sada, 1963, vol. 50.
Batumskii botanicheskii sad: Putevoditel’. Tbilisi, 1968.

N. M. SHARASHIDZE