The Jerusalem Botanical Gardens (JBG) is a

botanical garden A botanical garden or botanic gardenThe terms ''botanic'' and ''botanical'' and ''garden'' or ''gardens'' are used more-or-less interchangeably, although the word ''botanic'' is generally reserved for the earlier, more traditional gardens. is ...

and a center of botanical education and research in

Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

. The largest botanical garden in Israel, it features over 6,000 plant species from around the world, arranged in phytogeographic sections, including

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...

, Southwest and Central Asia and the

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern ...

. The garden, located in

Nayot Nayot () is a neighborhood in south-central Jerusalem established in 1960 by a group of English-speaking immigrants.''A holy hill becomes home from home'' Haaretz Magazine, Anglo File, December 24, 1999 The neighborhood's population of 2,223 includ ...

on the southeastern edge of the

Givat Ram Givat Ram () is a neighborhood in central Jerusalem. It is the site of Kiryat HaMemshala (Hebrew language, Hebrew: קריית הממשלה, ''lit.'' Government complex), which includes many of Israel's most important national institutions, among t ...

campus of the

Hebrew University of Jerusalem The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI; ) is an Israeli public university, public research university based in Jerusalem. Co-founded by Albert Einstein and Chaim Weizmann in July 1918, the public university officially opened on 1 April 1925. ...

, opened to the public in 1985 as a successor to the

National Botanic Garden of Israel National Botanic Garden of Israel (officially Montague Lamport Botanical Garden for the Native Plants of Israel) Hebrew: הגן הבוטני לצמחי ארץ ישראל ע"ש מונטג'יו למפורט), is a botanical garden located on the ...

Mount Scopus Mount Scopus ( ', "Mount of the Watchmen/ Sentinels"; ', lit. "Mount Lookout", or ' "Mount of the Scene/Burial Site", or "Mount Syenite") is a mountain (elevation: above sea level) in northeast Jerusalem. Between the 1948 Arab–Israeli ...

, which still exists today as a separate entity.

History

Plans for the first

, on a plot of land purchased on

in 1926, were drawn up by

Alexander Eig Alexander Eig (, ; 1894 – 30 July 1938) was a botanist, one of the first plant researchers in Israel, head of the department of Botany at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and co-founder of the National Botanic Garden of Israel on Mount Scopus ...

, chairman of the Botany Department of the Hebrew University, based on the flora of the

Land of Israel The Land of Israel () is the traditional Jewish name for an area of the Southern Levant. Related biblical, religious and historical English terms include the Land of Canaan, the Promised Land, the Holy Land, and Palestine. The definition ...

from

Mount Lebanon Mount Lebanon (, ; , ; ) is a mountain range in Lebanon. It is about long and averages above in elevation, with its peak at . The range provides a typical alpine climate year-round. Mount Lebanon is well-known for its snow-covered mountains, ...

to the desert. Planting began in 1931. The botanical gardens on Mount Scopus were the first home of the

Biblical Zoo The Tisch Family Biblical Zoo in Jerusalem (, ), popularly known as the Jerusalem Biblical Zoo, is a zoo located in the Malha neighborhood of Jerusalem, Israel. It is famous for its Afro-Asiatic collection of wildlife, many of which are descri ...

. In 1948, in the

1947–1949 Palestine war The 1948 Palestine war was fought in the territory of what had been, at the start of the war, British-ruled Mandatory Palestine. During the war, the British withdrew from Palestine, Zionism, Zionist forces conquered territory and established ...

, access to Mount Scopus and the university campus was cut off from the rest of Israel, and it was decided to create a new Botanical Garden (the subject of this entry) near the

Jewish National and University Library The National Library of Israel (NLI; ; ), formerly Jewish National and University Library (JNUL; ), is the library dedicated to collecting the cultural treasures of Israel and of Jewish heritage. The library holds more than 5 million books, and i ...

, on the new campus of the Hebrew University in Givat Ram in western Jerusalem. The new Botanical Garden, including a unique collection of Coniferae, was opened in 1954, soon after the establishment of Givat Ram campus. In 1962, a rocky hill in the southeastern corner of the campus was planted with

conifers Conifers () are a group of cone-bearing seed plants, a subset of gymnosperms. Scientifically, they make up the division Pinophyta (), also known as Coniferophyta () or Coniferae. The division contains a single extant class, Pinopsida. All e ...

from North America. That year, Michael Avishai was appointed scientific director of the gardens. Many of the trees were raised from his private seed collection. Budgeting was a serious problem until 1975, when the Society of Friends of the Botanical Gardens was established and the garden became a joint project of the university, the Jerusalem Municipality and the

Jewish National Fund The Jewish National Fund (JNF; , ''Keren Kayemet LeYisrael''; previously , ''Ha Fund HaLeumi'') is a non-profit organizationProfessor Alon Tal, The Mitrani Department of Desert Ecology, The Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research, Ben Gurion ...

. A scientific board was appointed, and architect Shlomo Aronson was commissioned to plan the layout. In 1981, the Garden Association was founded, and a board of executives appointed. The garden was opened to the public in 1985. In 1994, it separated from the Hebrew University, and has been managed by the Botanical Garden Association since 1996. Key developments include the tropical conservatory in 1986, the South Africa section in 1989, and the Hank Greenspan Entrance Plaza, Dvorsky Visitors’ Center, and restaurant in 1990. Jerusalem Botanical Garden visitors center

Jerusalem Botanical Garden visitors center

Collection

PikiWiki_Israel_66569_at_the_jerusalem_botanical_garden

The Jerusalem Botanical Gardens is the largest botanical garden in Israel and the Middle East. It features an expansive collection of living plants, totalling over 6,400 species and varieties from various regions worldwide. Spanning 30 acres, the garden showcases flora from

Southwest The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A '' compass rose'' is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west— ...

and

Central Asia Central Asia is a region of Asia consisting of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. The countries as a group are also colloquially referred to as the "-stans" as all have names ending with the Persian language, Pers ...

and the

Japanese section and bonsai

The garden's

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

ese section contains over 150

bonsai Bonsai (; , ) is the Japanese art of Horticulture, growing and shaping miniature trees in containers, with a long documented history of influences and native Japanese development over a thousand years, and with unique aesthetics, cultural hist ...

trees, the largest concentrated collection of bonsai trees in the world. A new

pagoda A pagoda is a tiered tower with multiple eaves common to Thailand, Cambodia, Nepal, India, China, Japan, Korea, Myanmar, Vietnam, and other parts of Asia. Most pagodas were built to have a religious function, most often Buddhist, but some ...

is currently under construction at the garden. It will serve as a focal point for the gardens' collection of Japanese plants. The pagoda was designed in

and arrived as modular pieces that were assembled on-site.

Birds

Birdwatchers Birdwatching, or birding, is the observing of birds, either as a recreational activity or as a form of citizen science. A birdwatcher may observe by using their naked eye, by using a visual enhancement device such as binoculars or a telescop ...

have identified 46 species of birds that visit the Gardens throughout the year.

Bible path

The 500-meter long "Bible Path" is planted with most of the 70 species that scientists have identified as some of the 400 types of plants mentioned in the

Bible The Bible is a collection of religious texts that are central to Christianity and Judaism, and esteemed in other Abrahamic religions such as Islam. The Bible is an anthology (a compilation of texts of a variety of forms) originally writt ...

Gene bank of endangered species

One of the goals of the garden is to create a living

gene bank A gene bank is a type of biorepository that is used across the world to store the genetic material of animals, plants, and other organisms. It preserves their genetic information in the form of reproductive material like seeds, sperm, eggs, emb ...

to protect endangered plants in Israel and the region as a whole.

Events

Winter Lights festival

In recent years, the Jerusalem Botanical Gardens has hosted the Winter Lights Festival, an annual event held during December to coincide with

Hannukah Hanukkah (, ; ''Ḥănukkā'' ) is a Jewish holidays, Jewish festival commemorating the recovery of Jerusalem and subsequent rededication of the Second Temple at the beginning of the Maccabean Revolt against the Seleucid Empire in the 2nd ce ...

and

Christmas Christmas is an annual festival commemorating Nativity of Jesus, the birth of Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a Religion, religious and Culture, cultural celebration among billions of people Observance of Christmas by coun ...

celebrations. This festival showcases elaborate lighting designs illuminating a 700-meter path by more than 2.5 million small LEDs. Alongside the displays, the festival features performances by artists and actors in costumes, as well as comfort food vendors and additional attractions.

References

External links

Official website of the botanical garden in Givat RamOfficial website of the botanical garden in Mount ScopusJerusalem Botanical Garden blossoms with floraJBG Pictures
{{Authority control Botanical gardens in Israel Buildings and structures in Jerusalem Education in Jerusalem Tourist attractions in Jerusalem Bible-themed museums, zoos, and botanical gardens Hebrew Bible in popular culture