The botanical garden of the Masaryk University Faculty of Science is celebrating 100 years this year, and until this Sunday there will be an exhibition and sale of carnivorous plants. The exhibition will feature experts providing advice on the cultivation of carnivorous plants. Photo credit: Freepik
Brno, 26 May (BD) – The botanical gardens on Konečného náměstí were founded in 1922 by Josef Podpěra, the first professor of botany at the newly founded Masaryk University (founded in 1919). The garden is located on a 1.5-hectare plot previously used as a vegetable garden by the former hospice whose buildings were transferred to the new Faculty of Science.
Podpěra was primarily a plant geographer, which is why he designed the garden following both the principles of systematics and ecology-phytogeography. The systematic part of the garden contained plants arranged by families, as well as displays of the Linnean system, Mendel’s hybridisation experiments and medicinal and cultivated plants. The ecological-phytogeographical part represented the main plant communities of South Moravia and the Central European mountain ranges, as well as examples of various plant formations of temperate Eurasia. This original historical design has been maintained, with minor modifications, until today.
Depending on flowering and climate, the garden organizes annual exhibitions of carnivorous plants (May), succulents (September), tropical and subtropical cultivated plants (October) and exotic birds (November). In addition to plants, there are many sculptures and other works of art, both in the greenhouses and outdoors. The oldest is a frog statue with a fountain from 1947 in one of the tanks. The compositions of various types of rock in front of the greenhouses were created by sculptor Jan Šimek in 1997.
To date, some 2,500 plant species have been planted in the outdoor collections and a further 2,500 species in the greenhouses. The garden and the adjacent area of the Kotlářská Campus of the Faculty of Science together house more than 1,000 individuals of 520 species of woody plants, and recent surveys have recorded 48 species of bryophytes and more than 90 species of macromycetes.
The exhibition and sale of carnivorous plants will run until this Sunday, 29 May, at the gardens at Kotlářská 2. Experts will be on hand to introduce the various species and give advice on how to care for them. Entry is CZK 120 for adults and CZK 60 for young people and seniors. Children under six can enter for free.
