130-743: The University of California Botanical Garden is a 34-acre (13.7 ha) botanical garden located on the University of California, Berkeley campus, in Strawberry Canyon. The garden is in the Berkeley Hills , inside the city boundary of Oakland , with views overlooking the San Francisco Bay . It is one of the most diverse plant collections in the United States, and famous for its large number of rare and endangered species. Development The garden
260-538: A Rhododendron collection (259 taxa, 397 accessions), including many mature trees. (Rhododendrons too tender for most North American climates.)) Also present are specimens of the redwood family, including the original dawn redwoods ( Metasequoia ), and dozens of unusual shrubs, vines, and herbaceous species recently collected from China. – plants from Australia and New Zealand; with southern beeches , banksias , myrtles such as eucalyptus , cycads , and phormiums . – over 4,000 accessions, including nearly one-half of
390-423: A mutation–selection balance . It is predicted that a viral quasispecies at a low but evolutionarily neutral and highly connected (that is, flat) region in the fitness landscape will outcompete a quasispecies located at a higher but narrower fitness peak in which the surrounding mutants are unfit, "the quasispecies effect" or the "survival of the flattest". There is no suggestion that a viral quasispecies resembles
520-405: A ring species . Also, among organisms that reproduce only asexually , the concept of a reproductive species breaks down, and each clone is potentially a microspecies. Although none of these are entirely satisfactory definitions, and while the concept of species may not be a perfect model of life, it is still a useful tool to scientists and conservationists for studying life on Earth, regardless of
650-400: A "classical" method of determining species, such as with Linnaeus, early in evolutionary theory. However, different phenotypes are not necessarily different species (e.g. a four-winged Drosophila born to a two-winged mother is not a different species). Species named in this manner are called morphospecies . In the 1970s, Robert R. Sokal , Theodore J. Crovello and Peter Sneath proposed
780-424: A 'smallest clade' idea" (a phylogenetic species concept). Mishler and Wilkins and others concur with this approach, even though this would raise difficulties in biological nomenclature. Wilkins cited the ichthyologist Charles Tate Regan 's early 20th century remark that "a species is whatever a suitably qualified biologist chooses to call a species". Wilkins noted that the philosopher Philip Kitcher called this
910-482: A botanical garden is defined by its scientific or academic connection, then the first true botanical gardens were established with the revival of learning that occurred in the European Renaissance . These were secular gardens attached to universities and medical schools, used as resources for teaching and research. The superintendents of these gardens were often professors of botany with international reputations,
1040-428: A connected series of neighbouring populations, each of which can sexually interbreed with adjacent related populations, but for which there exist at least two "end" populations in the series, which are too distantly related to interbreed, though there is a potential gene flow between each "linked" population. Such non-breeding, though genetically connected, "end" populations may co-exist in the same region thus closing
1170-403: A department of an educational institution, it may be related to a teaching program. In any case, it exists for scientific ends and is not to be restricted or diverted by other demands. It is not merely a landscaped or ornamental garden, although it may be artistic, nor is it an experiment station or yet a park with labels on the plants. The essential element is the intention of the enterprise, which
1300-432: A different species from its ancestors. Viruses have enormous populations, are doubtfully living since they consist of little more than a string of DNA or RNA in a protein coat, and mutate rapidly. All of these factors make conventional species concepts largely inapplicable. A viral quasispecies is a group of genotypes related by similar mutations, competing within a highly mutagenic environment, and hence governed by
1430-524: A factor that probably contributed to the creation of botany as an independent discipline rather than a descriptive adjunct to medicine. The botanical gardens of Southern Europe were associated with university faculties of medicine and were founded in Italy at Orto botanico di Pisa (1544), Orto botanico di Padova (1545), Orto Botanico di Firenze (1545), Orto Botanico dell'Università di Pavia (1558) and Orto Botanico dell'Università di Bologna (1568). Here
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#17330846900141560-508: A genetic boundary suitable for defining a species concept is present. DNA barcoding has been proposed as a way to distinguish species suitable even for non-specialists to use. One of the barcodes is a region of mitochondrial DNA within the gene for cytochrome c oxidase . A database, Barcode of Life Data System , contains DNA barcode sequences from over 190,000 species. However, scientists such as Rob DeSalle have expressed concern that classical taxonomy and DNA barcoding, which they consider
1690-467: A gum-leaf cone bush from Southern Africa” were also damaged. In response, a team of experts swiftly converged on the site, located high in the hills above the UC Berkeley campus, with the urgent mission of rescuing and rehabilitating the battered plants to salvage what could be preserved. This effort was motivated by the exceptional difficulty in replacing these specimens, as many were originally sourced from
1820-492: A misnomer, need to be reconciled, as they delimit species differently. Genetic introgression mediated by endosymbionts and other vectors can further make barcodes ineffective in the identification of species. A phylogenetic or cladistic species is "the smallest aggregation of populations (sexual) or lineages (asexual) diagnosable by a unique combination of character states in comparable individuals (semaphoronts)". The empirical basis – observed character states – provides
1950-449: A particular species, including which genus (and higher taxa) it is placed in, is a hypothesis about the evolutionary relationships and distinguishability of that group of organisms. As further information comes to hand, the hypothesis may be corroborated or refuted. Sometimes, especially in the past when communication was more difficult, taxonomists working in isolation have given two distinct names to individual organisms later identified as
2080-524: A period of prosperity when the city was a trading centre for the Dutch East India Company . Other gardens were constructed in Brazil ( Rio de Janeiro Botanical Garden , 1808), Sri Lanka ( Botanic Gardens of Peradeniya , 1821 and on a site dating back to 1371), Indonesia ( Bogor Botanical Gardens , 1817 and Kebun Raya Cibodas , 1852), and Singapore ( Singapore Botanical Gardens , 1822). These had
2210-586: A profound effect on the economy of the countries, especially in relation to the foods and medicines introduced. The importation of rubber trees to the Singapore Botanic Garden initiated the important rubber industry of the Malay Peninsula . At this time also, teak and tea were introduced to India and breadfruit , pepper and starfruit to the Caribbean. Included in the charter of these gardens
2340-625: A rock garden in a collection now known as the "Deserts of the Americas" collection. From October 5, 1933, to May 31, 1934, over 200 young men, as a part of the Civilian Conservation Corps Company 751, built road and dam infrastructure, which aided in many of the garden's future projects. Goodspeed became the official Director of the garden in 1934 and remained the Director until 1957, where he led efforts to cultivate tobacco ( Nicotiana ),
2470-400: A short way of saying that something applies to many species within a genus, but not to all. If scientists mean that something applies to all species within a genus, they use the genus name without the specific name or epithet. The names of genera and species are usually printed in italics . However, abbreviations such as "sp." should not be italicised. When a species' identity is not clear,
2600-404: A specialist may use "cf." before the epithet to indicate that confirmation is required. The abbreviations "nr." (near) or "aff." (affine) may be used when the identity is unclear but when the species appears to be similar to the species mentioned after. With the rise of online databases, codes have been devised to provide identifiers for species that are already defined, including: The naming of
2730-523: A species as groups of actually or potentially interbreeding natural populations, which are reproductively isolated from other such groups. It has been argued that this definition is a natural consequence of the effect of sexual reproduction on the dynamics of natural selection. Mayr's use of the adjective "potentially" has been a point of debate; some interpretations exclude unusual or artificial matings that occur only in captivity, or that involve animals capable of mating but that do not normally do so in
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#17330846900142860-400: A species as determined by a taxonomist. A typological species is a group of organisms in which individuals conform to certain fixed properties (a type), so that even pre-literate people often recognise the same taxon as do modern taxonomists. The clusters of variations or phenotypes within specimens (such as longer or shorter tails) would differentiate the species. This method was used as
2990-488: A species. All species definitions assume that an organism acquires its genes from one or two parents very like the "daughter" organism, but that is not what happens in HGT. There is strong evidence of HGT between very dissimilar groups of prokaryotes , and at least occasionally between dissimilar groups of eukaryotes , including some crustaceans and echinoderms . The evolutionary biologist James Mallet concludes that there
3120-685: A species. Generally the term includes the unknown element of a distinct act of creation. Many authors have argued that a simple textbook definition, following Mayr's concept, works well for most multi-celled organisms , but breaks down in several situations: Species identification is made difficult by discordance between molecular and morphological investigations; these can be categorised as two types: (i) one morphology, multiple lineages (e.g. morphological convergence , cryptic species ) and (ii) one lineage, multiple morphologies (e.g. phenotypic plasticity , multiple life-cycle stages). In addition, horizontal gene transfer (HGT) makes it difficult to define
3250-519: A taxonomic decision at the discretion of cognizant specialists, is not governed by the Codes of Zoological or Botanical Nomenclature, in contrast to the PhyloCode , and contrary to what is done in several other fields, in which the definitions of technical terms, like geochronological units and geopolitical entities, are explicitly delimited. The nomenclatural codes that guide the naming of species, including
3380-506: A traditional biological species. The International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses has since 1962 developed a universal taxonomic scheme for viruses; this has stabilised viral taxonomy. Most modern textbooks make use of Ernst Mayr 's 1942 definition, known as the Biological Species Concept as a basis for further discussion on the definition of species. It is also called a reproductive or isolation concept. This defines
3510-447: A variation on the morphological species concept, a phenetic species, defined as a set of organisms with a similar phenotype to each other, but a different phenotype from other sets of organisms. It differs from the morphological species concept in including a numerical measure of distance or similarity to cluster entities based on multivariate comparisons of a reasonably large number of phenotypic traits. A mate-recognition species
3640-515: A variety of reasons. Viruses are a special case, driven by a balance of mutation and selection , and can be treated as quasispecies . Biologists and taxonomists have made many attempts to define species, beginning from morphology and moving towards genetics . Early taxonomists such as Linnaeus had no option but to describe what they saw: this was later formalised as the typological or morphological species concept. Ernst Mayr emphasised reproductive isolation, but this, like other species concepts,
3770-457: A wide influence on both botany and horticulture, as plants poured into it from around the world. The garden's golden age came in the 18th century, when it became the world's most richly stocked botanical garden. Its seed-exchange programme was established in 1682 and still continues today. With the increase in maritime trade , ever more plants were being brought back to Europe as trophies from distant lands, and these were triumphantly displayed in
3900-470: A year. Historically, botanical gardens exchanged plants through the publication of seed lists (these were called Latin : Indices Seminae in the 18th century). This was a means of transferring both plants and information between botanical gardens. This system continues today, although the possibility of genetic piracy and the transmission of invasive species has received greater attention in recent times. The International Association of Botanic Gardens
4030-438: Is "an entity composed of organisms which maintains its identity from other such entities through time and over space, and which has its own independent evolutionary fate and historical tendencies". This differs from the biological species concept in embodying persistence over time. Wiley and Mayden stated that they see the evolutionary species concept as "identical" to Willi Hennig 's species-as-lineages concept, and asserted that
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4160-400: Is a group of sexually reproducing organisms that recognise one another as potential mates. Expanding on this to allow for post-mating isolation, a cohesion species is the most inclusive population of individuals having the potential for phenotypic cohesion through intrinsic cohesion mechanisms; no matter whether populations can hybridise successfully, they are still distinct cohesion species if
4290-458: Is a set of organisms adapted to a particular set of resources, called a niche, in the environment. According to this concept, populations form the discrete phenetic clusters that we recognise as species because the ecological and evolutionary processes controlling how resources are divided up tend to produce those clusters. A genetic species as defined by Robert Baker and Robert Bradley is a set of genetically isolated interbreeding populations. This
4420-415: Is an ongoing process. Some plants are pruned for rehabilitation, while others are transported back to the garden's nursery, where cuttings are cultivated to create a new generation of the lost plant s. Botanical garden A botanical garden or botanic garden is a garden with a documented collection of living plants for the purpose of scientific research, conservation, display, and education. It
4550-414: Is between 8 and 8.7 million. About 14% of these had been described by 2011. All species (except viruses ) are given a two-part name , called a "binomial". The first part of a binomial is the genus to which the species belongs. The second part is called the specific name or the specific epithet (in botanical nomenclature , also sometimes in zoological nomenclature ). For example, Boa constrictor
4680-414: Is called speciation . Charles Darwin was the first to describe the role of natural selection in speciation in his 1859 book The Origin of Species . Speciation depends on a measure of reproductive isolation , a reduced gene flow. This occurs most easily in allopatric speciation, where populations are separated geographically and can diverge gradually as mutations accumulate. Reproductive isolation
4810-483: Is closely linked to the history of botany itself. The botanical gardens of the 16th and 17th centuries were medicinal gardens, but the idea of a botanical garden changed to encompass displays of the beautiful, strange, new and sometimes economically important plant trophies being returned from the European colonies and other distant lands. Later, in the 18th century, they became more educational in function, demonstrating
4940-403: Is described formally, in a publication that assigns it a unique scientific name. The description typically provides means for identifying the new species, which may not be based solely on morphology (see cryptic species ), differentiating it from other previously described and related or confusable species and provides a validly published name (in botany) or an available name (in zoology) when
5070-671: Is further weakened by the existence of microspecies , groups of organisms, including many plants, with very little genetic variability, usually forming species aggregates . For example, the dandelion Taraxacum officinale and the blackberry Rubus fruticosus are aggregates with many microspecies—perhaps 400 in the case of the blackberry and over 200 in the dandelion, complicated by hybridisation , apomixis and polyploidy , making gene flow between populations difficult to determine, and their taxonomy debatable. Species complexes occur in insects such as Heliconius butterflies, vertebrates such as Hypsiboas treefrogs, and fungi such as
5200-726: Is hard or even impossible to test. Later biologists have tried to refine Mayr's definition with the recognition and cohesion concepts, among others. Many of the concepts are quite similar or overlap, so they are not easy to count: the biologist R. L. Mayden recorded about 24 concepts, and the philosopher of science John Wilkins counted 26. Wilkins further grouped the species concepts into seven basic kinds of concepts: (1) agamospecies for asexual organisms (2) biospecies for reproductively isolated sexual organisms (3) ecospecies based on ecological niches (4) evolutionary species based on lineage (5) genetic species based on gene pool (6) morphospecies based on form or phenotype and (7) taxonomic species,
5330-455: Is home to the renowned Asian plant collection—a repository of some of the world's rarest and most precious flora. This botanical gem, however, was damaged by a colossal redwood tree's toppling during a powerful storm. Along with the Asian section “the top half of the garden’s only Parana pine tree, a critically endangered species from Brazil [,] a prized eucalyptus from Australia’s Queensland region and
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5460-511: Is inside the Parque La Carolina is a 165.5-acre (670,000 m ) park in the centre of the Quito central business district , bordered by the avenues Río Amazonas, de los Shyris, Naciones Unidas, Eloy Alfaro, and de la República. The botanical garden of Quito is a park, a botanical garden, an arboretum and greenhouses of 18,600 square meters that is planned to increase, maintain the plants of
5590-403: Is no easy way to tell whether related geographic or temporal forms belong to the same or different species. Species gaps can be verified only locally and at a point of time. One is forced to admit that Darwin's insight is correct: any local reality or integrity of species is greatly reduced over large geographic ranges and time periods. The botanist Brent Mishler argued that the species concept
5720-468: Is not valid, notably because gene flux decreases gradually rather than in discrete steps, which hampers objective delimitation of species. Indeed, complex and unstable patterns of gene flux have been observed in cichlid teleosts of the East African Great Lakes . Wilkins argued that "if we were being true to evolution and the consequent phylogenetic approach to taxa, we should replace it with
5850-400: Is one of the species of the genus Boa , with constrictor being the species' epithet. While the definitions given above may seem adequate at first glance, when looked at more closely they represent problematic species concepts. For example, the boundaries between closely related species become unclear with hybridisation , in a species complex of hundreds of similar microspecies , and in
5980-663: Is respected worldwide for the published work of its scientists, the education of horticultural students, its public programmes, and the scientific underpinning of its horticulture. In 1728, John Bartram founded Bartram's Garden in Philadelphia , one of the continent's first botanical gardens. The garden is now managed as a historical site that includes a few original and many modern specimens as well as extensive archives and restored historical farm buildings. The large number of plants needing description were often listed in garden catalogues; and at this time Carl Linnaeus established
6110-586: Is similar to Mayr's Biological Species Concept, but stresses genetic rather than reproductive isolation. In the 21st century, a genetic species could be established by comparing DNA sequences. Earlier, other methods were available, such as comparing karyotypes (sets of chromosomes ) and allozymes ( enzyme variants). An evolutionarily significant unit (ESU) or "wildlife species" is a population of organisms considered distinct for purposes of conservation. In palaeontology , with only comparative anatomy (morphology) and histology from fossils as evidence,
6240-529: Is situated on the land of the Chochenyo speaking Ohlone people called xučyun (Huichin). In the 1870s, a few years after the founding of the University of California, Berkeley, Dr. Eugene W. Hilgard, the university's first Dean of Agriculture, established a garden of plants on the land which is now Moffit Library . The University of California Botanical Garden was initially established in 1890 near Haviland Hall on
6370-1081: Is the acquisition and dissemination of botanical knowledge. A contemporary botanic garden is a strictly protected green area, where a managing organization creates landscaped gardens and holds documented collections of living plants and/or preserved plant accessions containing functional units of heredity of actual or potential value for purposes such as scientific research, education, public display, conservation, sustainable use, tourism and recreational activities, production of marketable plant-based products and services for improvement of human well-being. Worldwide, there are now about 1800 botanical gardens and arboreta in about 150 countries (mostly in temperate regions) of which about 550 are in Europe (150 of which are in Russia ), 200 in North America , and an increasing number in East Asia. These gardens attract about 300 million visitors
6500-434: Is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity . Other ways of defining species include their karyotype , DNA sequence, morphology , behaviour, or ecological niche . In addition, paleontologists use the concept of the chronospecies since fossil reproduction cannot be examined. The most recent rigorous estimate for the total number of species of eukaryotes
6630-473: Is their mandate as a botanical garden that plants are labelled with their botanical names . It may contain specialist plant collections such as cacti and other succulent plants , herb gardens , plants from particular parts of the world, and so on; there may be glasshouses or shadehouses , again with special collections such as tropical plants , alpine plants , or other exotic plants that are not native to that region. Most are at least partly open to
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#17330846900146760-594: Is threatened by hybridisation, but this can be selected against once a pair of populations have incompatible alleles of the same gene, as described in the Bateson–Dobzhansky–Muller model . A different mechanism, phyletic speciation, involves one lineage gradually changing over time into a new and distinct form (a chronospecies ), without increasing the number of resultant species. Horizontal gene transfer between organisms of different species, either through hybridisation , antigenic shift , or reassortment ,
6890-546: Is to maintain documented collections of living plants for the purposes of scientific research, conservation, display, and education, although this will depend on the resources available and the special interests pursued at each particular garden. The staff will normally include botanists as well as gardeners. Many botanical gardens offer diploma/certificate programs in horticulture, botany and taxonomy. There are many internship opportunities offered to aspiring horticulturists. As well as opportunities for students/researchers to use
7020-598: The Botanical Garden of the University of Vienna and Hortus Botanicus Leiden . Many plants were being collected from the Near East , especially bulbous plants from Turkey . Clusius laid the foundations of Dutch tulip breeding and the bulb industry, and he helped create one of the earliest formal botanical gardens of Europe at Leyden where his detailed planting lists have made it possible to recreate this garden near its original site. The hortus medicus of Leyden in 1601
7150-779: The Global Strategy for Plant Conservation by producing a range resources and publications, and by organizing international conferences and conservation programs. Communication also happens regionally. In the United States, there is the American Public Gardens Association (formerly the American Association of Botanic Gardens and Arboreta), and in Australasia there is the Botanic Gardens of Australia and New Zealand (BGANZ). The history of botanical gardens
7280-799: The Government Hill in Victoria City , Hong Kong Island . The Koishikawa Botanical Garden in Tokyo, with its origin going back to the Tokugawa shogunate 's ownership, became in 1877 part of the Tokyo Imperial University . In Sri Lanka major botanical gardens include the Royal Botanic Gardens, Peradeniya (formally established in 1843), Hakgala Botanical Gardens (1861) and Henarathgoda Botanical Garden (1876). Jardín Botánico de Quito
7410-523: The ICZN for animals and the ICN for plants, do not make rules for defining the boundaries of the species. Research can change the boundaries, also known as circumscription, based on new evidence. Species may then need to be distinguished by the boundary definitions used, and in such cases the names may be qualified with sensu stricto ("in the narrow sense") to denote usage in the exact meaning given by an author such as
7540-968: The Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens , 1818; the Royal Botanic Gardens, Melbourne , 1845; Adelaide Botanic Gardens , 1854; and Brisbane Botanic Gardens , 1855. These were established essentially as colonial gardens of economic botany and acclimatisation. The Auburn Botanical Gardens , 1977, located in Sydney's western suburbs , are one of the popular and diverse botanical gardens in the Greater Western Sydney area. Major botanical gardens in New Zealand include Dunedin Botanic Gardens , 1863; Christchurch Botanic Gardens , 1863; Ōtari-Wilton's Bush , 1926; and Wellington Botanic Gardens , 1868. Hong Kong Botanic Gardens , 1871 (renamed Hong Kong Zoological and Botanical Gardens in 1975), up from
7670-399: The fly agaric . Natural hybridisation presents a challenge to the concept of a reproductively isolated species, as fertile hybrids permit gene flow between two populations. For example, the carrion crow Corvus corone and the hooded crow Corvus cornix appear and are classified as separate species, yet they can hybridise where their geographical ranges overlap. A ring species is
7800-498: The jaguar ( Panthera onca ) of Latin America or the leopard ( Panthera pardus ) of Africa and Asia. In contrast, the scientific names of species are chosen to be unique and universal (except for some inter-code homonyms ); they are in two parts used together : the genus as in Puma , and the specific epithet as in concolor . A species is given a taxonomic name when a type specimen
7930-498: The "Father of Botany". There is some debate among science historians whether this garden was ordered and scientific enough to be considered "botanical", and suggest it more appropriate to attribute the earliest known botanical garden in Europe to the botanist and pharmacologist Antonius Castor , mentioned by Pliny the Elder in the 1st century. Though these ancient gardens shared some of
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#17330846900148060-406: The "cynical species concept", and arguing that far from being cynical, it usefully leads to an empirical taxonomy for any given group, based on taxonomists' experience. Other biologists have gone further and argued that we should abandon species entirely, and refer to the "Least Inclusive Taxonomic Units" (LITUs), a view that would be coherent with current evolutionary theory. The species concept
8190-408: The 16th and 17th centuries, the first plants were being imported to these major Western European gardens from Eastern Europe and nearby Asia (which provided many bulbs ), and these found a place in the new gardens, where they could be conveniently studied by the plant experts of the day. For example, Asian introductions were described by Carolus Clusius (1526–1609), who was director, in turn, of
8320-473: The Asian section, several other Bay Area botanical gardens also experienced losses from the same devastating storm, highlighting the vulnerability of these curated collections to the unpredictable forces of nature. The arduous process of recovery involves the removal of debris to access damaged plant beds and then careful assessment and restoration work. Notably, the fate of these plants is uncertain, as they may not exhibit immediate signs of distress, and recovery
8450-665: The British and Dutch, in India , South-east Asia and the Caribbean . This was also the time of Sir Joseph Banks 's botanical collections during Captain James Cook 's circumnavigations of the planet and his explorations of Oceania , which formed the last phase of plant introduction on a grand scale. There are currently about 230 tropical botanical gardens with a concentration in southern and south-eastern Asia. The first botanical garden founded in
8580-599: The Chelsea Physic Garden to the Province of Georgia in 1732 and tea into India by Calcutta Botanic Garden. The transfer of germplasm between the temperate and tropical botanical gardens was undoubtedly responsible for the range of agricultural crops currently used in several regions of the tropics. The first botanical gardens in Australia were founded early in the 19th century. The Royal Botanic Gardens, Sydney , 1816;
8710-511: The Christian conquest in 1085 CE. Ibn Bassal then founded a garden in Seville, most of its plants being collected on a botanical expedition that included Morocco, Persia, Sicily, and Egypt. The medical school of Montpelier was also founded by Spanish Arab physicians, and by 1250 CE, it included a physic garden, but the site was not given botanic garden status until 1593. Botanical gardens, in
8840-519: The Golden Gate … with consequent moderating influences on summer temperature and humidity, permit an association of plants, birds, and mammals not duplicated elsewhere in middle western California.” Goodspeed and J.W. Gregg , a professor in the Department of Landscape Design, are credited to have supervised the construction of the garden and its layout in Strawberry Canyon. In 1932, James West established
8970-521: The Japanese Pool, an 80-year-old pond. In early 2023, leaks in the pond were threatening the existence of newts since newts would get lodged into the pond's cracks as water drained and attempt to get freed but eventually drown. In a statement, UC Botanical Garden Director Lewis Feldman said "[newts are] part of the diversity of nature,” and “their disappearance will probably impact on the garden in ways that we probably now can’t understand.” In summer 2023,
9100-1009: The Netherlands ( Hortus Botanicus Leiden , 1590; Hortus Botanicus (Amsterdam) , 1638), Germany ( Alter Botanischer Garten Tübingen , 1535; Leipzig Botanical Garden , 1580; Botanischer Garten Jena , 1586; Botanischer Garten Heidelberg , 1593; Herrenhäuser Gärten, Hanover , 1666; Botanischer Garten der Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel , 1669; Botanical Garden in Berlin , 1672), Switzerland ( Old Botanical Garden, Zürich , 1560; Basel , 1589); England ( University of Oxford Botanic Garden , 1621; Chelsea Physic Garden , 1673); Scotland ( Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh , 1670); and in France ( Jardin des plantes de Montpellier , 1593; Faculty of Medicine Garden, Paris, 1597; Jardin des Plantes , Paris, 1635), Denmark ( University of Copenhagen Botanical Garden , 1600); Sweden ( Uppsala University , 1655). During
9230-760: The Rhododendron Dell, the New World Desert collection, and the California Redwood Grove (now Stephen J. Mather Redwood Grove). Expeditions to China, the Andes, Southern Africa, Bolivia, Peru, Mesoamerica, Australia, New Zealand were conducted by Berkeley researchers and paleontologists to expand the garden's collections. In 1976, The Friends of the Botanical Garden was established to aid with fundraising, volunteering, and public outreach in efforts to support
9360-716: The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (1759) and Orotava Acclimatization Garden (in Spanish) , Tenerife (1788) and the Real Jardín Botánico de Madrid (1755) were set up to cultivate new species returned from expeditions to the tropics; they also helped found new tropical botanical gardens. From the 1770s, following the example of the French and Spanish , amateur collectors were supplemented by official horticultural and botanical plant hunters. These botanical gardens were boosted by
9490-521: The Royal Garden set aside as a physic garden. William Aiton (1741–1793), the first curator, was taught by garden chronicler Philip Miller of the Chelsea Physic Garden whose son Charles became first curator of the original Cambridge Botanic Garden (1762). In 1759, the "Physick Garden" was planted, and by 1767, it was claimed that "the Exotick Garden is by far the richest in Europe". Gardens such as
9620-614: The Spanish invaders, not only with their appearance, but also because the indigenous Aztecs employed many more medicinal plants than did the classical world of Europe. Early medieval gardens in Islamic Spain resembled botanic gardens of the future, an example being the 11th-century Huerta del Rey garden of physician and author Ibn Wafid (999–1075 CE) in Toledo . This was later taken over by garden chronicler Ibn Bassal (fl. 1085 CE) until
9750-481: The Vatican grounds in 1447, for a garden of medicinal plants that were used to promote the teaching of botany, and this was a forerunner to the University gardens at Padua and Pisa established in the 1540s. Certainly the founding of many early botanic gardens was instigated by members of the medical profession. In the 17th century, botanical gardens began their contribution to a deeper scientific curiosity about plants. If
9880-405: The abbreviation "sp." in the singular or "spp." (standing for species pluralis , Latin for "multiple species") in the plural in place of the specific name or epithet (e.g. Canis sp.). This commonly occurs when authors are confident that some individuals belong to a particular genus but are not sure to which exact species they belong, as is common in paleontology . Authors may also use "spp." as
10010-570: The amount of hybridisation is insufficient to completely mix their respective gene pools . A further development of the recognition concept is provided by the biosemiotic concept of species. In microbiology , genes can move freely even between distantly related bacteria, possibly extending to the whole bacterial domain. As a rule of thumb, microbiologists have assumed that members of Bacteria or Archaea with 16S ribosomal RNA gene sequences more similar than 97% to each other need to be checked by DNA–DNA hybridisation to decide if they belong to
10140-474: The biological species concept, "the several versions" of the phylogenetic species concept, and the idea that species are of the same kind as higher taxa are not suitable for biodiversity studies (with the intention of estimating the number of species accurately). They further suggested that the concept works for both asexual and sexually-reproducing species. A version of the concept is Kevin de Queiroz 's "General Lineage Concept of Species". An ecological species
10270-505: The biological species concept, a cladistic species does not rely on reproductive isolation – its criteria are independent of processes that are integral in other concepts. Therefore, it applies to asexual lineages. However, it does not always provide clear cut and intuitively satisfying boundaries between taxa, and may require multiple sources of evidence, such as more than one polymorphic locus, to give plausible results. An evolutionary species, suggested by George Gaylord Simpson in 1951,
10400-475: The characteristics of present-day botanical gardens, the forerunners of modern botanical gardens are generally regarded as being the medieval monastic physic gardens that originated after the decline of the Roman Empire at the time of Emperor Charlemagne (742–789 CE). These contained a hortus , a garden used mostly for vegetables, and another section set aside for specially labelled medicinal plants and this
10530-442: The classification systems being developed by botanists in the gardens' museums and herbaria. Botanical gardens had now become scientific collections, as botanists published their descriptions of the new exotic plants, and these were also recorded for posterity in detail by superb botanical illustrations. In this century, botanical gardens effectively dropped their medicinal function in favour of scientific and aesthetic priorities, and
10660-405: The collection for their studies. The origin of modern botanical gardens is generally traced to the appointment of botany professors to the medical faculties of universities in 16th-century Renaissance Italy, which also entailed curating a medicinal garden . However, the objectives, content, and audience of today's botanic gardens more closely resembles that of the grandiose gardens of antiquity and
10790-433: The concept of a chronospecies can be applied. During anagenesis (evolution, not necessarily involving branching), some palaeontologists seek to identify a sequence of species, each one derived from the phyletically extinct one before through continuous, slow and more or less uniform change. In such a time sequence, some palaeontologists assess how much change is required for a morphologically distinct form to be considered
10920-411: The construction of Haviland Hall. The garden grew to house six hundred different plant species within the first two years. In 1909, Strawberry Canyon was purchased by the university and in 1925, the garden was relocated to its current residence in Strawberry Canyon under the directorship of Thomas Harper Goodspeed , the university's Dean of Agriculture, where he stated “the eastward moving air draft from
11050-424: The country (Ecuador is among the 17 richest countries in the world in the native species, a study on this matter). The Ecuadorian flora classified, determines the existence of 17,000 species) Species A species ( pl. : species) is a population of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring , typically by sexual reproduction . It
11180-474: The diversity of Central American habitats with genera found in both mountain and desert areas such as Agaves , oaks ( Quercus ), pines , and a range of brightly flowered Salvias . – with a grove of monkey puzzle trees ( Araucaria araucana ), a collection of fuchsias , and several species of southern beech . The garden also has a selection of cultivars of Lapageria . The garden's greenhouses include: Asian Plant Collection The UC Botanical Garden
11310-477: The educational garden of Theophrastus in the Lyceum of ancient Athens. The early concern with medicinal plants changed in the 17th century to an interest in the new plant imports from explorations outside Europe as botany gradually established its independence from medicine. In the 18th century, systems of nomenclature and classification were devised by botanists working in the herbaria and universities associated with
11440-529: The end of the 18th century, Kew, under the directorship of Sir Joseph Banks , enjoyed a golden age of plant hunting, sending out collectors to the South African Cape , Australia , Chile , China , Ceylon , Brazil , and elsewhere, and acting as "the great botanical exchange house of the British Empire ". From its earliest days to the present, Kew has in many ways exemplified botanic garden ideals, and
11570-435: The evidence to support hypotheses about evolutionarily divergent lineages that have maintained their hereditary integrity through time and space. Molecular markers may be used to determine diagnostic genetic differences in the nuclear or mitochondrial DNA of various species. For example, in a study done on fungi , studying the nucleotide characters using cladistic species produced the most accurate results in recognising
11700-512: The flora being sent back to Europe from various European colonies around the globe . At this time, British horticulturalists were importing many woody plants from Britain's colonies in North America , and the popularity of horticulture had increased enormously, encouraged by the horticultural and botanical collecting expeditions overseas fostered by the directorship of Sir William Jackson Hooker and his keen interest in economic botany . At
11830-1027: The garden successfully raised US$ 150,000 to empty the pond, seal the cracks, plug the sinkholes, and resurface the basin of the pond. The garden has more than 20,000 accessions, representing 324 plant families, 12,000 different species and subspecies , and 2,885 genera . Outdoor collections are, in general, arranged geographically and nearly all specimens were collected in the wild. The major family collections include: cactus (2,669 plants), lily (1,193 plants), sunflower (1,151 plants), erica (897 plants), and orchid (950 plants). Other families include about 500 types of ferns and fern allies, Chinese medicinal herbs, plants of economic importance, old rose cultivars, and California native plants. Sets of greenhouses contain succulents , epiphytes , ferns, carnivorous plants , and tropicals. The garden collections are geographically organized, and include: – featuring South African plants, including: lilies, Proteas , ice plants , Aloes , and Encephalartos . — featuring
11960-769: The garden. The group was later dissolved in 1997 but an active group of 250 volunteers continue to aid in similar efforts today. In 2015, the garden celebrated its 125th anniversary with the renovation of the Redwood Amphitheater located in the garden. Recent History After the Golden Gate Exhibition on Treasure Island closed in 1939, the Japanese exhibit was donated to the garden and relocated to Strawberry Canyon from San Francisco. For decades, two newt species, California newt ( Taricha torosa ) and rough-skinned newt ( Taricha granulosa ), have lived and laid eggs in
12090-434: The gardens, these systems often being displayed in the gardens as educational "order beds ". With the rapid expansion of European colonies around the globe in the late 18th century, botanic gardens were established in the tropics, and economic botany became a focus with the hub at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew , near London. Over the years, botanical gardens, as cultural and scientific organisations, have responded to
12220-488: The interests of botany and horticulture . Nowadays, most botanical gardens display a mix of the themes mentioned and more; having a strong connection with the general public, there is the opportunity to provide visitors with information relating to the environmental issues being faced at the start of the 21st century, especially those relating to plant conservation and sustainability . The "New Royal Horticultural Society Dictionary of Gardening" (1999) points out that among
12350-599: The latest plant classification systems devised by botanists working in the associated herbaria as they tried to order these new treasures. Then, in the 19th and 20th centuries, the trend was towards a combination of specialist and eclectic collections demonstrating many aspects of both horticulture and botany. The idea of "scientific" gardens used specifically for the study of plants dates back to antiquity. Near-eastern royal gardens set aside for economic use or display and containing at least some plants gained by special collecting trips or military campaigns abroad, are known from
12480-504: The modern sense, developed from physic gardens , whose main purpose was to cultivate herbs for medical use as well as research and experimentation. Such gardens have a long history. In Europe, for example, Aristotle (384 BCE – 322 BCE) is said to have had a physic garden in the Lyceum at Athens, which was used for educational purposes and for the study of botany, and this was inherited, or possibly set up, by his pupil Theophrastus ,
12610-544: The north side of campus by E.L. Greene , the first chairman of the Department of Botany, to preserve the trees, shrubs, and plants native to the Pacific Coast . Modeled after the famous Crystal Palace in London, the garden's first formal glasshouse-style conservatory was built in 1894 by Lord and Burnham for US$ 16,000 and housed palm trees and other tropical plants but was later demolished in 1924 to make space for more parking and
12740-478: The numerous fungi species of all the concepts studied. Versions of the phylogenetic species concept that emphasise monophyly or diagnosability may lead to splitting of existing species, for example in Bovidae , by recognising old subspecies as species, despite the fact that there are no reproductive barriers, and populations may intergrade morphologically. Others have called this approach taxonomic inflation , diluting
12870-585: The paper is accepted for publication. The type material is usually held in a permanent repository, often the research collection of a major museum or university, that allows independent verification and the means to compare specimens. Describers of new species are asked to choose names that, in the words of the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature , are "appropriate, compact, euphonious, memorable, and do not cause offence". Books and articles sometimes intentionally do not identify species fully, using
13000-674: The person who named the species, while the antonym sensu lato ("in the broad sense") denotes a wider usage, for instance including other subspecies. Other abbreviations such as "auct." ("author"), and qualifiers such as "non" ("not") may be used to further clarify the sense in which the specified authors delineated or described the species. Species are subject to change, whether by evolving into new species, exchanging genes with other species, merging with other species or by becoming extinct. The evolutionary process by which biological populations of sexually-reproducing organisms evolve to become distinct or reproductively isolated as species
13130-571: The pharmacopeia of modern China. – exhibits flora from the region's countries, including: Morocco, Spain, Portugal, the Canary Islands , Turkey, and Syria, on a hillside with views across the San Francisco Bay. – bristles with cacti and other succulents from North and Central America, plus the high deserts of the Andes. – includes deciduous trees such as tulip tree ( Liriodendron ), bald cypress ( Taxodium ), and dogwoods ( Cornus ). – shows
13260-704: The physicians (referred to in English as apothecaries ) delivered lectures on the Mediterranean "simples" or " officinals " that were being cultivated in the grounds. Student education was no doubt stimulated by the relatively recent advent of printing and the publication of the first herbals. All of these botanical gardens still exist, mostly in their original locations. The tradition of these Italian gardens passed into Spain Botanical Garden of Valencia , 1567) and Northern Europe , where similar gardens were established in
13390-447: The private estates of the wealthy, in commercial nurseries , and in the public botanical gardens. Heated conservatories called " orangeries ", such as the one at Kew, became a feature of many botanical gardens. Industrial expansion in Europe and North America resulted in new building skills, so plants sensitive to cold were kept over winter in progressively elaborate and expensive heated conservatories and glasshouses. The 18th century
13520-551: The public for the purposes of recreation, education and research." The term tends to be used somewhat differently in different parts of the world. For example a large woodland garden with a good collection of rhododendron and other flowering tree and shrub species is very likely to present itself as a "botanical garden" if it is located in the US, but very unlikely to do so if in the UK (unless it also contains other relevant features). Very few of
13650-454: The public, and may offer guided tours, public programming such as workshops, courses, educational displays, art exhibitions , book rooms, open-air theatrical and musical performances, and other entertainment. Botanical gardens are often run by universities or other scientific research organizations, and often have associated herbaria and research programmes in plant taxonomy or some other aspect of botanical science. In principle, their role
13780-812: The purposes of scientific research, conservation, display and education." The following definition was produced by staff of the Liberty Hyde Bailey Hortorium of Cornell University in 1976. It covers in some detail the many functions and activities generally associated with botanical gardens: A botanical garden is a controlled and staffed institution for the maintenance of a living collection of plants under scientific management for purposes of education and research, together with such libraries, herbaria, laboratories, and museums as are essential to its particular undertakings. Each botanical garden naturally develops its own special fields of interests depending on its personnel, location, extent, available funds, and
13910-487: The result of misclassification leading to questions on whether there really are any ring species. The commonly used names for kinds of organisms are often ambiguous: "cat" could mean the domestic cat, Felis catus , or the cat family, Felidae . Another problem with common names is that they often vary from place to place, so that puma, cougar, catamount, panther, painter and mountain lion all mean Puma concolor in various parts of America, while "panther" may also mean
14040-573: The ring. Ring species thus present a difficulty for any species concept that relies on reproductive isolation. However, ring species are at best rare. Proposed examples include the herring gull – lesser black-backed gull complex around the North pole, the Ensatina eschscholtzii group of 19 populations of salamanders in America, and the greenish warbler in Asia, but many so-called ring species have turned out to be
14170-536: The rubber plant was introduced to Singapore. Especially in the tropics, the larger gardens were frequently associated with a herbarium and museum of economy. The Botanical Garden of Peradeniya had considerable influence on the development of agriculture in Ceylon where the Para rubber tree ( Hevea brasiliensis ) was introduced from Kew, which had itself imported the plant from South America . Other examples include cotton from
14300-508: The same species. This concept was narrowed in 2006 to a similarity of 98.7%. The average nucleotide identity (ANI) method quantifies genetic distance between entire genomes , using regions of about 10,000 base pairs . With enough data from genomes of one genus, algorithms can be used to categorize species, as for Pseudomonas avellanae in 2013, and for all sequenced bacteria and archaea since 2020. Observed ANI values among sequences appear to have an "ANI gap" at 85–95%, suggesting that
14430-529: The same species. When two species names are discovered to apply to the same species, the older species name is given priority and usually retained, and the newer name considered as a junior synonym, a process called synonymy . Dividing a taxon into multiple, often new, taxa is called splitting . Taxonomists are often referred to as "lumpers" or "splitters" by their colleagues, depending on their personal approach to recognising differences or commonalities between organisms. The circumscription of taxa, considered
14560-717: The second millennium BCE in ancient Egypt , Mesopotamia , Crete , Mexico and China . In about 2800 BCE, the Chinese Emperor Shen Nung sent collectors to distant regions searching for plants with economic or medicinal value. It has also been suggested that the Spanish colonization of Mesoamerica influenced the history of the botanical garden as gardens in Tenochtitlan established by king Nezahualcoyotl , also gardens in Chalco (altépetl) and elsewhere, greatly impressed
14690-428: The sites used for the UK's dispersed National Plant Collection , usually holding large collections of a particular taxonomic group, would call themselves "botanic gardens". This has been further reduced by Botanic Gardens Conservation International to the following definition which "encompasses the spirit of a true botanic garden": "A botanic garden is an institution holding documented collections of living plants for
14820-502: The species concept and making taxonomy unstable. Yet others defend this approach, considering "taxonomic inflation" pejorative and labelling the opposing view as "taxonomic conservatism"; claiming it is politically expedient to split species and recognise smaller populations at the species level, because this means they can more easily be included as endangered in the IUCN red list and can attract conservation legislation and funding. Unlike
14950-662: The state's native vascular plant species and 174 taxa on the California Native Plant Society 's list of rare and endangered species –Prominent genera are: manzanitas ( Arctostaphylos spp. ) with 81 taxa (252 accessions), California-Lilacs ( Ceanothus spp. ) with 55 taxa (164 accessions), and an almost complete collection of California bulbous monocots in the Lily and Amaryllis families ( Fritillaria , Calochortus , Lilium , Erythronium , Allium , Brodiaea ) with 118 taxa (234 accessions) – selections from
15080-404: The system of binomial nomenclature which greatly facilitated the listing process. Names of plants were authenticated by dried plant specimens mounted on card (a hortus siccus or garden of dried plants) that were stored in buildings called herbaria , these taxonomic research institutions being frequently associated with the botanical gardens, many of which by then had "order beds" to display
15210-417: The term "botanic garden" came to be more closely associated with the herbarium, library (and later laboratories) housed there than with the living collections – on which little research was undertaken. The late 18th and early 19th centuries were marked by the establishment of tropical botanical gardens as a tool of colonial expansion (for trade and commerce and, secondarily, science) mainly by
15340-401: The terms of its charter. It may include greenhouses, test grounds, an herbarium, an arboretum, and other departments. It maintains a scientific as well as a plant-growing staff, and publication is one of its major modes of expression. This broad outline is then expanded: The botanic garden may be an independent institution, a governmental operation, or affiliated to a college or university. If
15470-485: The theoretical difficulties. If species were fixed and clearly distinct from one another, there would be no problem, but evolutionary processes cause species to change. This obliges taxonomists to decide, for example, when enough change has occurred to declare that a lineage should be divided into multiple chronospecies , or when populations have diverged to have enough distinct character states to be described as cladistic species. Species and higher taxa were seen from
15600-873: The time of Aristotle until the 18th century as categories that could be arranged in a hierarchy, the great chain of being . In the 19th century, biologists grasped that species could evolve given sufficient time. Charles Darwin 's 1859 book On the Origin of Species explained how species could arise by natural selection . That understanding was greatly extended in the 20th century through genetics and population ecology . Genetic variability arises from mutations and recombination , while organisms themselves are mobile, leading to geographical isolation and genetic drift with varying selection pressures . Genes can sometimes be exchanged between species by horizontal gene transfer ; new species can arise rapidly through hybridisation and polyploidy ; and species may become extinct for
15730-790: The tropics was the Pamplemousses Botanical Garden in Mauritius , established in 1735 to provide food for ships using the port, but later trialling and distributing many plants of economic importance. This was followed by the West Indies ( Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Botanic Gardens , 1764) and in 1786 by the Acharya Jagadish Chandra Bose Botanical Garden in Calcutta , India founded during
15860-510: The various kinds of organizations known as botanical gardens, there are many that are in modern times public gardens with little scientific activity, and it cited a tighter definition published by the World Wildlife Fund and IUCN when launching the "Botanic Gardens Conservation Strategy" in 1989: "A botanic garden is a garden containing scientifically ordered and maintained collections of plants, usually documented and labelled, and open to
15990-512: The wild, making their preservation crucial. The UC Botanical Garden's Asian collection stands as both a unique botanical resource and a site of serene beauty. It holds historic significance, with its origins dating back to the early 1900s when plants were gathered from expeditions to western China and Tibet by explorers like George Forrest and Joseph Rock . What distinguishes this garden is its comprehensive documentation of each plant's provenance, contributing to its scientific value. In addition to
16120-537: The wild. It is difficult to define a species in a way that applies to all organisms. The debate about species concepts is called the species problem. The problem was recognised even in 1859, when Darwin wrote in On the Origin of Species : I was much struck how entirely vague and arbitrary is the distinction between species and varieties. He went on to write: No one definition has satisfied all naturalists; yet every naturalist knows vaguely what he means when he speaks of
16250-439: Was a perfect square divided into quarters for the four continents, but by 1720, though, it was a rambling system of beds, struggling to contain the novelties rushing in, and it became better known as the hortus academicus . His Exoticorum libri decem (1605) is an important survey of exotic plants and animals that is still consulted today. The inclusion of new plant introductions in botanic gardens meant their scientific role
16380-552: Was called the herbularis or hortus medicus —more generally known as a physic garden, and a viridarium or orchard. These gardens were probably given impetus when Charlemagne issued a capitulary , the Capitulary de Villis, which listed 73 herbs to be used in the physic gardens of his dominions. Many of these were found in British gardens even though they only occurred naturally in continental Europe, demonstrating earlier plant introduction. Pope Nicholas V set aside part of
16510-547: Was formed in 1954 as a worldwide organisation affiliated to the International Union of Biological Sciences . More recently, coordination has also been provided by Botanic Gardens Conservation International (BGCI), which has the mission "To mobilise botanic gardens and engage partners in securing plant diversity for the well-being of people and the planet". BGCI has over 700 members – mostly botanic gardens – in 118 countries, and strongly supports
16640-623: Was marked by introductions from the Cape of South Africa – including ericas , geraniums , pelargoniums , succulents, and proteaceous plants – while the Dutch trade with the Dutch East Indies resulted in a golden era for the Leiden and Amsterdam botanical gardens and a boom in the construction of conservatories. The Royal Gardens at Kew were founded in 1759, initially as part of
16770-638: Was now widening, as botany gradually asserted its independence from medicine. In the mid to late 17th century, the Paris Jardin des Plantes was a centre of interest with the greatest number of new introductions to attract the public. In England , the Chelsea Physic Garden was founded in 1673 as the "Garden of the Society of Apothecaries". The Chelsea garden had heated greenhouses , and in 1723 appointed Philip Miller (1691–1771) as head gardener . He had
16900-442: Was the investigation of the local flora for its economic potential to both the colonists and the local people. Many crop plants were introduced by or through these gardens – often in association with European botanical gardens such as Kew or Amsterdam – and included cloves , tea , coffee , breadfruit, cinchona , sugar , cotton , palm oil and Theobroma cacao (for chocolate). During these times,
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