Jardin botanique de Montréal
Encyclopedia
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...
in Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
, Quebec
Quebec
Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
comprising 75 hectares (185.3 acre) of thematic gardens and greenhouses. It was designated a National Historic Site of Canada in 2008 as it is considered to be one of the most important botanical gardens in the world due to the extent of its collections and facilities.
Background
Sherbrooke Street
Sherbrooke Street is a major east-west artery and at in length, is the second longest street on the Island of Montreal. The street begins in the town of Montreal West and ends on the extreme tip of the island in Pointe-aux-Trembles, intersecting Gouin Boulevard and joining up with Notre-Dame...
East, at the corner of Pie-IX and Sherbrooke Streets, in Maisonneuve Park
Maisonneuve Park
Maisonneuve park is an urban park in Montreal, Quebec, Canada in the Rosemont–La Petite-Patrie borough.Established in 1910, it is 118 hectares in size, with 38 hectares occupied by the Montreal Botanical Garden and Montreal Insectarium, 55 hectares by a nine-hole public golf course and the...
, facing Montreal's Olympic Stadium
Olympic Stadium (Montreal)
The Olympic Stadium is a multi-purpose stadium in the Hochelaga-Maisonneuve district of Montreal, Quebec, Canada built as the main venue for the 1976 Summer Olympics...
. It contains a greenhouse complex full of plants from around the world, and a number of large outdoor gardens, each with a specific theme. The outdoor gardens are bare and covered with snow from about November until about April, but the greenhouses are open to visitors year round, hosting the annual Butterflies Go Free
Butterflies Go Free
Butterflies Go Free is an annual exhibit at the Jardin Botanique de Montreal, featuring thousands of live tropical butterflies and moths released in the Grande Serre of the exhibition greenhouses...
exhibit from February to April.
The garden was founded in 1931, in the height of the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
, by mayor Camillien Houde
Camillien Houde
Camillien Houde was a Quebec politician, a Member of Parliament, and a four-time mayor of Montreal.-Political career:...
, after years of campaigning by Brother Marie-Victorin
Marie-Victorin
Brother Marie-Victorin was a De La Salle Christian Brother and botanist in Quebec, Canada, best known as the father of the Jardin botanique de Montréal....
; the grounds were designed by Henry Teuscher
Henry Teuscher
Heinrich Teuscher was an award-winning landscape architect, horticulturalist and botanist best known for having designed the Jardin Botanique de Montreal...
. It serves to educate the public in general and students of horticulture
Horticulture
Horticulture is the industry and science of plant cultivation including the process of preparing soil for the planting of seeds, tubers, or cuttings. Horticulturists work and conduct research in the disciplines of plant propagation and cultivation, crop production, plant breeding and genetic...
in particular, as well as to conserve endangered plant species. The grounds are also home to a botanical research institution, and to the Montreal Insectarium
Montreal Insectarium
The Montreal Insectarium is a museum located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, featuring a large quantity of insects from all around the world. It is the largest Canadian insectarium and among the largest insectariums worldwide. It was founded by Georges Brossard and opened on February 7, 1990. Its...
; offsite, the Garden staff also administer the Ferme Angrignon educational farm and petting zoo.
While it charges admission, city residents can obtain a pass granting free admission to the outdoor gardens, so many people visit regularly, even if only to sit under the trees. The outdoor areas are also free to everyone between 6 p.m. and nightfall during the summer season (May to September). Many weddings are performed in the gardens every year. The nearest metro
Montreal Metro
The Montreal Metro is a rubber-tired metro system, and the main form of public transportation underground in the city of Montreal, Quebec, Canada....
station is Pie-IX
Pie-IX (Montreal Metro)
Pie-IX is a station on the Green Line of the Montreal Metro rapid transit system operated by the Société de transport de Montréal . It is in the district of Hochelaga-Maisonneuve in the borough of Mercier–Hochelaga-Maisonneuve in Montreal, Quebec, Canada...
, which is located on the corner of the Olympic Stadium.
Gardens
Bonsai
is a Japanese art form using miniature trees grown in containers. Similar practices exist in other cultures, including the Chinese tradition of penjing from which the art originated, and the miniature living landscapes of Vietnamese hòn non bộ...
and penjing
Penjing
Penjing , also known as penzai , tray landscape, potted scenery, potted landscape, and miniature trees and rockery is the ancient Chinese art of growing trees and plants, kept small by skilled pruning and formed to create an aesthetic shape and the complex illusion of age...
that have been donated. The garden is populated with Chinese plants. It is the largest Chinese garden in the world outside China.
The Japanese Garden is populated with Japanese plants, and it contains a building in the Japanese style containing an exhibit on 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...
. The Japanese tea ceremony
Tea ceremony
A tea ceremony is a ritualised form of making tea. The term generally refers to either chayi Chinese tea ceremony, chado Japanese tea ceremony, tarye Korean tea ceremony. The Japanese tea ceremony is more well known, and was influenced by the Chinese tea ceremony during ancient and medieval times....
is performed there during the summer, and anyone can take classes to learn more about it. Other traditional Japanese arts, such as Iaido
Iaido
is a modern Japanese martial art associated with the smooth, controlled movements of drawing the sword from its scabbard, striking or cutting an opponent, removing blood from the blade, and then replacing the sword in the scabbard...
and Ikebana
Ikebana
is the Japanese art of flower arrangement, also known as .-Etymology:"Ikebana" is from the Japanese and . Possible translations include "giving life to flowers" and "arranging flowers".- Approach :...
are occasionally demonstrated there as well. It also includes a large koi
Koi
or more specifically , are ornamental varieties of domesticated common carp that are kept for decorative purposes in outdoor koi ponds or water gardens....
pond; visitors often feed the koi. The garden hosts an annual Hiroshima
Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
During the final stages of World War II in 1945, the United States conducted two atomic bombings against the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan, the first on August 6, 1945, and the second on August 9, 1945. These two events are the only use of nuclear weapons in war to date.For six months...
memorial ceremony on August 6, with the hourly ringing of a Japanese Peace Bell
Japanese Peace Bell
The Japanese Peace Bell is a United Nations peace symbol. Cast on November 24, 1952, it was an official gift of the Japanese people to the United Nations on June 8, 1954. The symbolic bell of peace was donated by Japan to the United Nations at a time when Japan had not yet been officially...
made in Hiroshima.
The First Nations Garden is populated with Canadian plants; the maple
Maple
Acer is a genus of trees or shrubs commonly known as maple.Maples are variously classified in a family of their own, the Aceraceae, or together with the Hippocastanaceae included in the family Sapindaceae. Modern classifications, including the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group system, favour inclusion in...
, birch
Birch
Birch is a tree or shrub of the genus Betula , in the family Betulaceae, closely related to the beech/oak family, Fagaceae. The Betula genus contains 30–60 known taxa...
, and pine
Pine
Pines are trees in the genus Pinus ,in the family Pinaceae. They make up the monotypic subfamily Pinoideae. There are about 115 species of pine, although different authorities accept between 105 and 125 species.-Etymology:...
trees shade its paths. It has several totem pole
Totem pole
Totem poles are monumental sculptures carved from large trees, mostly Western Red Cedar, by cultures of the indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast of North America...
s and exhibits demonstrating traditional Native American artwork and construction methods.
The Alpine Garden has several paths winding over a rocky outcrop which is covered with tiny, delicate alpine plants.
Arboretum
An arboretum in a narrow sense is a collection of trees only. Related collections include a fruticetum , and a viticetum, a collection of vines. More commonly, today, an arboretum is a botanical garden containing living collections of woody plants intended at least partly for scientific study...
. The botanical gardens are also the home to some wildlife; primarily squirrel
Squirrel
Squirrels belong to a large family of small or medium-sized rodents called the Sciuridae. The family includes tree squirrels, ground squirrels, chipmunks, marmots , flying squirrels, and prairie dogs. Squirrels are indigenous to the Americas, Eurasia, and Africa and have been introduced to Australia...
s and duck
Duck
Duck is the common name for a large number of species in the Anatidae family of birds, which also includes swans and geese. The ducks are divided among several subfamilies in the Anatidae family; they do not represent a monophyletic group but a form taxon, since swans and geese are not considered...
s, other slightly less common animals such as turtle
Turtle
Turtles are reptiles of the order Testudines , characterised by a special bony or cartilaginous shell developed from their ribs that acts as a shield...
s and heron
Heron
The herons are long-legged freshwater and coastal birds in the family Ardeidae. There are 64 recognised species in this family. Some are called "egrets" or "bitterns" instead of "heron"....
s also live there.
Sport
During the 1976 Summer Olympics1976 Summer Olympics
The 1976 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XXI Olympiad, was an international multi-sport event celebrated in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, in 1976. Montreal was awarded the rights to the 1976 Games on May 12, 1970, at the 69th IOC Session in Amsterdam, over the bids of Moscow and...
, it hosted the 20 km walk athletics
Athletics at the 1976 Summer Olympics
At the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, 37 events were contested in athletics. There were a total number of 1006 participating athletes from 80 countries.-Men's events:-Women's events:-Medal table:-References:**...
and the running part of the modern pentathlon
Modern pentathlon at the 1976 Summer Olympics
The modern pentathlon at the 1976 Summer Olympics was represented by two events : Individual competition and Team competition...
event.
External links
- Official Homepage of the Montreal Botanical Garden (in English)
- http://picasaweb.google.com/tanshan/PapillonsEnLibertButterfliesGoFree2007: Photos of the annual butterfly exhibitButterflies Go FreeButterflies Go Free is an annual exhibit at the Jardin Botanique de Montreal, featuring thousands of live tropical butterflies and moths released in the Grande Serre of the exhibition greenhouses...
and greenhouses (in English and French) - Botanical Garden photos (in English and French)