The Exotenwald Weinheim (about 60 hectares) is a forest

arboretum An arboretum (: arboreta) is a botanical collection composed exclusively of trees and shrubs of a variety of species. Originally mostly created as a section in a larger garden or park for specimens of mostly non-local species, many modern arbor ...

located beside the Schlosspark in

Weinheim Weinheim (; ) is a town with about 43,000 inhabitants in northwest Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is in the Rhine-Neckar Metropolitan Region, approximately north of Heidelberg and northeast of Mannheim. Weinheim is known as the "Zwei-Burgen-Sta ...

Baden-Württemberg Baden-Württemberg ( ; ), commonly shortened to BW or BaWü, is a states of Germany, German state () in Southwest Germany, east of the Rhine, which forms the southern part of Germany's western border with France. With more than 11.07 million i ...

, Germany. It is open daily without charge. The arboretum was established in 1871 by Christian Friedrich Gustav Freiherr von Berckheim (1817–1889), former Minister of State and Großhofmeister at the court in

Karlsruhe Karlsruhe ( ; ; ; South Franconian German, South Franconian: ''Kallsruh'') is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, third-largest city of the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, after its capital Stuttgart a ...

, on the grounds of a baroque estate founded in 1725. His initial plantings were extensive – between 1872 and 1883 he planted some 12,494 trees on 36 hectares – with specimens purchased predominantly from specialist nurseries in

Orléans Orléans (,"Orleans"
(US) and Ghent Ghent ( ; ; historically known as ''Gaunt'' in English) is a City status in Belgium, city and a Municipalities of Belgium, municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of the Provinces of Belgium, province ...

, and

Exeter Exeter ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and the county town of Devon in South West England. It is situated on the River Exe, approximately northeast of Plymouth and southwest of Bristol. In Roman Britain, Exeter w ...

. Approximately 1460 sequoia trees were planted in this interval within a site. Although the climate has not proved entirely hospitable, and the original catalog of 150

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

has subsequently dwindled to about 50, many mature specimens still remain, including original plantings of '' Calocedrus decurrens'', ''

Sequoiadendron giganteum ''Sequoiadendron giganteum'' (also known as the giant sequoia, giant redwood, Sierra redwood or Wellingtonia) is a species of coniferous tree, classified in the family Cupressaceae in the subfamily Sequoioideae. Giant sequoia specimens are the la ...

'', ''

Pinus jeffreyi ''Pinus jeffreyi'', also known as Jeffrey pine, Jeffrey's pine, yellow pine and black pine, is a North American pine tree. It is mainly found in California, but also in the westernmost part of Nevada, southwestern Oregon, and northern Baja Calif ...

'', '' Pinus ponderosa'', and ''

Thuja plicata ''Thuja plicata'' is a large evergreen coniferous tree in the family Cupressaceae, native to the Pacific Northwest of North America. Its common name is western redcedar in the U.S. or western red cedar in the UK, and it is also called pacific re ...

''. After Gustav's death, the arboretum was neglected for several decades until his grandson, Christian Philipp Graf von Berckheim, became owner. He planted a further 8.25 hectares of exotic trees, with plantings in the years before World War II focused primarily on

East Asia East Asia is a geocultural region of Asia. It includes China, Japan, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea, and Taiwan, plus two special administrative regions of China, Hong Kong and Macau. The economies of Economy of China, China, Economy of Ja ...

and especially Japan, including specimens of ''

Cercidiphyllum japonicum ''Cercidiphyllum japonicum'', known as the Katsura (from its Japanese name カツラ, 桂), is a species of flowering tree in the family Cercidiphyllaceae native to China and Japan. It is sometimes called ''caramel tree'' for the light caramel sm ...

'', '' Cryptomeria japonica'', and '' Magnolia hypoleuca''. In 1955 the arboretum was sold to the state of

. Since then, it has been augmented with South American and New Zealand plantings, with continued expansion of its European, Asian, North American, and North African collections, and an emphasis on trees from China and

Korea Korea is a peninsular region in East Asia consisting of the Korean Peninsula, Jeju Island, and smaller islands. Since the end of World War II in 1945, it has been politically Division of Korea, divided at or near the 38th parallel north, 3 ...

. It now contains about 130 tree

References

Exotenwald Weinheim

GardenVisit entry

Baumkunde blog entries
* Ulrich Wilhelm unter Mitarbeit von Wolfgang Ernst, ''Der Weinheimer Exotenwald'', Verlag DiesbachMedien GmbH, 2nd edition, 2002. {{Coord, 49.5451, 8.6845, type:landmark_region:DE, display=title Weinheim, Exotenwald Weinheim, Exotenwald Weinheim

See also

References