Durban Botanic Garden
Encyclopedia
The Durban Botanic Gardens is situated in the City of Durban
, KwaZulu-Natal
, South Africa
. It is Durban’s oldest public institution and Africa
's oldest surviving botanic gardens
. The gardens cover an area of 15 hectares in a subtropical climate.
called Mark McKen then took his place and began to establish gardens of plants of economic value such as sugar cane, tea
, coffee
and pineapple
s. In 1851 the botanical gardens were relocated closer to town, to its present site. From 1853 to 1860 there were various curator
s, the most notable of which was Robert Plant, who died of malaria
while collecting plants near Lake st. Lucia
. McKen then returned in 1860 and was the curator for the next 12 years; until his death in 1872.
A German
by the name of William Keit arrived from Glasnevin
in Ireland
to take over the curatorship of the gardens, but economic depression in Natal
, a drought, and the Anglo-Zulu War
took its toll. Keit resigned in 1881 to become a nurseryman and was later Durban’s first director of parks.
who was a self-trained botanist took over the curatorship from 1882 to 1913, and the Durban Botanic Gardens was said to have enjoyed its heyday with support of the governor of the colony of Natal, Sir Henry Bulwer who shared a keen interest in the Gardens. John Medley Wood founded the Natal Government Herbarium in 1882 which was at first a wood and corrugated-iron hut in which he organised the storage of over 1,500 plant specimens. He prepared about 13,000 plant specimens, many of which were distributed by exchange, and only about 6,000 of his specimens remain in the collection of today's more than 100,000 specimens - most of which originate in KwaZulu-Natal. John Medley Wood discovered many new species of plants which he sent to Kew Gardens. His most famous discovery was a clump of a large species of cycad in Ongoye Forest
in 1895. This cycad was subsequently named in honour of him in 1908 as Wood's Cycad (Encephalartos woodii
) by the English horticulturalist Henry Sander. Three basal offsets of the cycad were collected by Wood's deputy, James Wylie, in 1903 and planted in the Durban Botanic Gardens, and again in a 1907 expedition, Wylie collected two of the larger stems and brought them to the gardens. Wood's Cycad is now the emblem
of the Durban Botanic Gardens, where the original specimens are still growing.
Economic problems exacerbated by the suspension of a government grant in the last years of the Natal Colony caused the collapse of the Durban Agricultural and Horticultural Society, who had owned the Gardens. In 1913, most of the Garden was transferred to the Durban Municipality, but about 0.5 ha, including the Herbarium and Medley Wood's house was excised and transferred to the Union Department of Agriculture, the following year. After Medley’s death on 26 August 1915, he was succeeded as Curator of the Herbarium by Dr P.A. van der Bijl, a noted mycologist. Because of the subsequent political changes with the Union of South Africa
, the gardens went into a state of decline, but many of the trees planted by McKen, Keit and Medley Wood are still growing in the Durban Botanical Gardens.
Among later curators was Ernest Thorp (from 1950 to 1975) who oversaw the construction of the orchid house at the Durban Botanic Gardens in 1962. The orchid house was named after him as the Ernest Thorp Orchid House. While Ernest Thorp was the curator, F. W. Thorns was the director. Around 1965 the Durban Botanic Gardens was noted for its collection of Canna
s, and Ernest Thorp sent rhizome
s of 3 varieties to Longwood Gardens
in the United States
upon request.
In 1999 the gardens were surveyed and mapped so that the various plants and their relevant information could be traced with the aid of GIS software.
and published A Popular Description of the Natal Ferns in 1877, and The Classification of Ferns in 1879. Today the Durban Botanic Gardens has a collection of ferns, many of which grow in the section of the gardens called the "Fern Dell". The collection consists of both local and exotic species.
, Phalaenopsis
and Vanda, which are put on display in the orchid house when in bloom (mostly in spring and autumn).
International Year of Biodiversity
, and more than 750 species of plants indigenous to South Africa were available.
Durban
Durban is the largest city in the South African province of KwaZulu-Natal and the third largest city in South Africa. It forms part of the eThekwini metropolitan municipality. Durban is famous for being the busiest port in South Africa. It is also seen as one of the major centres of tourism...
, KwaZulu-Natal
KwaZulu-Natal
KwaZulu-Natal is a province of South Africa. Prior to 1994, the territory now known as KwaZulu-Natal was made up of the province of Natal and the homeland of KwaZulu....
, South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
. It is Durban’s oldest public institution and Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
's oldest surviving botanic gardens
Botanical garden
A botanical garden The 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 a well-tended area displaying a wide range of plants labelled with their botanical names...
. The gardens cover an area of 15 hectares in a subtropical climate.
History
Early History
The Durban Botanic Gardens was established to participate in the quest of Kew Gardens to establish a series of botanic gardens across the world which would assist in the introduction of economically valuable plants, and to supply plants to Kew that were new to science. The first garden was established in December 1849 by Dr Charles Johnston on the edge of the Berea Ridge next to the Umgeni River (near Quarry Road). He was in charge of the gardens for less than 1 year. A ScotScot
A Scot is a member of an ethnic group indigenous to Scotland, derived from the Latin name of Irish raiders, the Scoti.Scot may also refer to:People with the given name Scot:* Scot Brantley , American football linebacker...
called Mark McKen then took his place and began to establish gardens of plants of economic value such as sugar cane, tea
Tea
Tea is an aromatic beverage prepared by adding cured leaves of the Camellia sinensis plant to hot water. The term also refers to the plant itself. After water, tea is the most widely consumed beverage in the world...
, coffee
Coffee
Coffee is a brewed beverage with a dark,init brooo acidic flavor prepared from the roasted seeds of the coffee plant, colloquially called coffee beans. The beans are found in coffee cherries, which grow on trees cultivated in over 70 countries, primarily in equatorial Latin America, Southeast Asia,...
and pineapple
Pineapple
Pineapple is the common name for a tropical plant and its edible fruit, which is actually a multiple fruit consisting of coalesced berries. It was given the name pineapple due to its resemblance to a pine cone. The pineapple is by far the most economically important plant in the Bromeliaceae...
s. In 1851 the botanical gardens were relocated closer to town, to its present site. From 1853 to 1860 there were various curator
Curator
A curator is a manager or overseer. Traditionally, a curator or keeper of a cultural heritage institution is a content specialist responsible for an institution's collections and involved with the interpretation of heritage material...
s, the most notable of which was Robert Plant, who died of malaria
Malaria
Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease of humans and other animals caused by eukaryotic protists of the genus Plasmodium. The disease results from the multiplication of Plasmodium parasites within red blood cells, causing symptoms that typically include fever and headache, in severe cases...
while collecting plants near Lake st. Lucia
Lake St. Lucia
Lake St. Lucia is an estuarine lake system in northern KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. The lake falls within the iSimangaliso Wetland Park . The lake was named Santa Lucia by Manuel Perestrerello on 13 December 1575, the day of the feast of Saint Lucy. It was later renamed to St. Lucia....
. McKen then returned in 1860 and was the curator for the next 12 years; until his death in 1872.
A German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
by the name of William Keit arrived from Glasnevin
Glasnevin
Glasnevin is a largely residential neighbourhood of Dublin, Ireland.-Geography:A mainly residential neighbourhood, it is located on the Northside of the city of Dublin . It was originally established on the northern bank of the River Tolka...
in Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
to take over the curatorship of the gardens, but economic depression in Natal
Colony of Natal
The Colony of Natal was a British colony in south-eastern Africa. It was proclaimed a British colony on May 4, 1843 after the British government had annexed the Boer Republic of Natalia, and on 31 May 1910 combined with three other colonies to form the Union of South Africa, as one of its...
, a drought, and the Anglo-Zulu War
Anglo-Zulu War
The Anglo-Zulu War was fought in 1879 between the British Empire and the Zulu Kingdom.Following the imperialist scheme by which Lord Carnarvon had successfully brought about federation in Canada, it was thought that a similar plan might succeed with the various African kingdoms, tribal areas and...
took its toll. Keit resigned in 1881 to become a nurseryman and was later Durban’s first director of parks.
John Medley Wood
A local farmer and rural trade store owner John Medley WoodJohn Medley Wood
John Medley Wood 1 December 1827 Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, England - 26 August 1915 Durban, was a South African botanist who contributed greatly to the knowledge of Natal ferns, is generally credited with the establishment of sugarcane mosaic virus immune Uba sugar cane in Natal and for his...
who was a self-trained botanist took over the curatorship from 1882 to 1913, and the Durban Botanic Gardens was said to have enjoyed its heyday with support of the governor of the colony of Natal, Sir Henry Bulwer who shared a keen interest in the Gardens. John Medley Wood founded the Natal Government Herbarium in 1882 which was at first a wood and corrugated-iron hut in which he organised the storage of over 1,500 plant specimens. He prepared about 13,000 plant specimens, many of which were distributed by exchange, and only about 6,000 of his specimens remain in the collection of today's more than 100,000 specimens - most of which originate in KwaZulu-Natal. John Medley Wood discovered many new species of plants which he sent to Kew Gardens. His most famous discovery was a clump of a large species of cycad in Ongoye Forest
Ongoye Forest
Ongoye Forest is also known as Ngoye Forest or Ngoya Forest. It is situated on a granite ridge; inland from the town of Mtunzini in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.-History:...
in 1895. This cycad was subsequently named in honour of him in 1908 as Wood's Cycad (Encephalartos woodii
Encephalartos woodii
Wood's Cycad is a cycad in the genus Encephalartos, and is endemic to the Ongoye Forest of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. It is one of the rarest plants in the world, being extinct in the wild with all specimens being clones of the type...
) by the English horticulturalist Henry Sander. Three basal offsets of the cycad were collected by Wood's deputy, James Wylie, in 1903 and planted in the Durban Botanic Gardens, and again in a 1907 expedition, Wylie collected two of the larger stems and brought them to the gardens. Wood's Cycad is now the emblem
Emblem
An emblem is a pictorial image, abstract or representational, that epitomizes a concept — e.g., a moral truth, or an allegory — or that represents a person, such as a king or saint.-Distinction: emblem and symbol:...
of the Durban Botanic Gardens, where the original specimens are still growing.
Economic problems exacerbated by the suspension of a government grant in the last years of the Natal Colony caused the collapse of the Durban Agricultural and Horticultural Society, who had owned the Gardens. In 1913, most of the Garden was transferred to the Durban Municipality, but about 0.5 ha, including the Herbarium and Medley Wood's house was excised and transferred to the Union Department of Agriculture, the following year. After Medley’s death on 26 August 1915, he was succeeded as Curator of the Herbarium by Dr P.A. van der Bijl, a noted mycologist. Because of the subsequent political changes with the Union of South Africa
Union of South Africa
The Union of South Africa is the historic predecessor to the present-day Republic of South Africa. It came into being on 31 May 1910 with the unification of the previously separate colonies of the Cape, Natal, Transvaal and the Orange Free State...
, the gardens went into a state of decline, but many of the trees planted by McKen, Keit and Medley Wood are still growing in the Durban Botanical Gardens.
Later History
William Keit again took over the gardens on 27 August 1916, about a year after the death of John Medley Wood.Among later curators was Ernest Thorp (from 1950 to 1975) who oversaw the construction of the orchid house at the Durban Botanic Gardens in 1962. The orchid house was named after him as the Ernest Thorp Orchid House. While Ernest Thorp was the curator, F. W. Thorns was the director. Around 1965 the Durban Botanic Gardens was noted for its collection of Canna
Canna (plant)
Canna is a genus of nineteen species of flowering plants. The closest living relations to cannas are the other plant families of the order Zingiberales, that is the gingers, bananas, marantas, heliconias, strelitzias, etc.Canna is the only genus in the family Cannaceae...
s, and Ernest Thorp sent rhizome
Rhizome
In botany and dendrology, a rhizome is a characteristically horizontal stem of a plant that is usually found underground, often sending out roots and shoots from its nodes...
s of 3 varieties to Longwood Gardens
Longwood Gardens
Longwood Gardens consists of over 1,077 acres of gardens, woodlands, and meadows in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania, United States in the Brandywine Creek Valley...
in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
upon request.
In 1999 the gardens were surveyed and mapped so that the various plants and their relevant information could be traced with the aid of GIS software.
Plant Collections
Cycads
The gardens contain an extensive collection of cycads from South Africa and from other parts of the world. The most notable specimens are those of Wood's Cycad. In 1992 and 1993 the cycads were rearranged to represent their geographic distribution. The species that grow here include:- Encephalartos altensteiniiEncephalartos altensteiniiEncephalartos altensteinii is a palm-like cycad in the family Zamiaceae. It is endemic to South Africa. The species name altensteinii commemorates Altenstein, a 19th century German chancellor and patron of science. It is commonly known as the breadtree, broodboom, eastern Cape giant cycad or uJobane...
- Encephalartos arenarius
- Encephalartos feroxEncephalartos feroxEncephalartos ferox, a member of the family Zamiaceae, is a small cycad with 35 cm wide subterranean trunk. It gets its name from the Latin word ferocious, likely from the spine-tipped lobes on the leaves of the plant. It is found naturally on the south-eastern coast of Africa where it has...
- Encephalartos horridusEncephalartos horridusThe Eastern Cape Blue Cycad is a small, low-growing cycad up to 0.9m high and 0.9m wide. It is a native of Eastern Cape Province, South Africa, and found in arid shrublands, most commonly on ridges and slopes with shallow soils...
- Encephalartos lehmanniiEncephalartos lehmanniiEncephalartos lehmannii is a low-growing palm-like cycad in the family Zamiaceae. It is commonly known as the Karoo cycad and is endemic to South Africa. The species name lehmannii commemorates Prof J.G.C. Lehmann, a German botanist who studied the cycads and published a book on them in 1834...
- Encephalartos longifoliusEncephalartos longifoliusEncephalartos longifolius is a low-growing palm-like cycad in the family Zamiaceae. It is endemic to South Africa and is commonly known as the breadpalm or broodboom. The species name comes from the Latin longis, long and folius, leaf...
- Encephalartos natalensis
- Encephalartos villosusEncephalartos villosusEncephalartos villosus is a South African cycad occurring from the East London vicinity, where it is found near the coast, to the northern border of Swaziland where it may grow as far as 100 km inland. The species is common throughout its range and is the most frequently cultivated in Southern...
- Stangeria eriopus
Ferns
John Medley Wood was an avid collector of fernsFern
A fern is any one of a group of about 12,000 species of plants belonging to the botanical group known as Pteridophyta. Unlike mosses, they have xylem and phloem . They have stems, leaves, and roots like other vascular plants...
and published A Popular Description of the Natal Ferns in 1877, and The Classification of Ferns in 1879. Today the Durban Botanic Gardens has a collection of ferns, many of which grow in the section of the gardens called the "Fern Dell". The collection consists of both local and exotic species.
Orchids
The orchid collection first began in 1931, was moved to the Ernest Thorp Orchid House in 1962, and today consists of more than 9,000 plants including CattleyaCattleya
Cattleya is a genus of 113 species of orchids from Costa Rica to tropical South America. The genus was named in 1824 by John Lindley after Sir William Cattley who received and successfully cultivated specimens of Cattleya labiata that were used as packing material in a shipment of other orchids...
, Phalaenopsis
Phalaenopsis
Phalaenopsis Blume , abbreviated Phal in the horticultural trade, is an orchid genus of approximately 60 species. Phalaenopsis is one of the most popular orchids in the trade, through the development of many artificial hybrids....
and Vanda, which are put on display in the orchid house when in bloom (mostly in spring and autumn).
Bromeliads
Some of the first bromeliads (discounting the pineapples of ~1850) may have been received by Medley at the gardens in 1885. Various species of bromeliads grow in mass plantings in the gardens, and some are placed in the orchid house on display during winter and summer when fewer orchids are in bloom.Trees
There are at least 1,354 individual trees, and about 917 palms growing in the Durban Botanical Gardens.Activities and Events
The grounds currently host various social gatherings such as local music bands and ' Victorian tea parties', as well as an indigenous plant fair in spring (September) each year. The fair is hosted by the Botanical Society of South Africa, and in 2009 and 2010 the Lepidopterists' Society of Africa was involved to promote the growing of indigenous butterfly food plants. The Indigenous Plant Fair of 2010 was held on 4 and 5 September next to the Durban Botanical Garden. The theme of the Fair for 2010 was taken from the UN’sUnited Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
International Year of Biodiversity
International Year of Biodiversity
The International Year of Biodiversity was a year-long celebration of biological diversity and its value for life on Earth, taking place around the world in 2010...
, and more than 750 species of plants indigenous to South Africa were available.