Hortus Botanicus in Amsterdam

Hortus Botanicus is a botanical garden in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

One of the oldest botanical gardens in the world, it is one of Amsterdam's major tourist attractions.

Hortus Botanicus was founded in 1638 by the city to serve as an herb garden for doctors and apothecaries. It contains more than six thousand tropical and indigenous trees and plants. The monumental Palm House dates from 1912 and is renowned for its collection of cycads. The garden was almost bankrupt in 1987 when the University of Amsterdam stopped paying its expenses but a community of individual supporters prevented its closure. Now the Hortus Botanicus is supported by the Amsterdam City Council as well. There are also two halls at the garden which are now used for conferences and ceremonies.

The collection is famous for some of its trees and plants, some of which are on the "danger" list, also well-known plants and trees can be found there, like the Persian Ironwood Tree which is known in Dutch as Perzische Parrotia. Hortus Botanicus's initial collection was amassed during the 17th century through plants and seeds brought back by traders of the East India Company (VOC) for use as medicines and for their possibilities for commerce. A single coffee plant, Coffea arabica, in Hortus's collection served as the parent for the entire coffee culture in Central and South America. Likewise, two small potted oil palms brought back by the VOC from Mauritius, an island in the Indian Ocean, produced seeds after six years, and these were propagated throughout all of Southeast Asia, becoming a major source of revenue in the Dutch East Indies and now in Indonesia. In 1885-1918 Hugo de Vries was the director of the garden. Recent additions to Hortus include a huge hothouse, which incorporates three different tropical climates.

Source of description: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hortus_Botanicus_(Amsterdam) wikipedia

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Category definition of category park
Material definition of material
tree
grass
Price definition of price normal : 7.50 child : 1.00 (age <5) youth : 3.50 (age 5-14) student : 3.50 (age 14-26)
Geographical coordinates 52.3668505, 4.9080162
Address 1018 Amsterdam, Plantage Middenlaan 2
Opening date 1638
More information official website

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