The Jardin botanique de l'Institut National is a small botanical garden

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...

 located within the campus of the Institut des sciences et industries du vivant et de l'environnement (AgroParisTech), formerly known as the Institut National Agronomique Paris-Grignon

Institut national agronomique Paris-Grignon

The Institut National Agronomique Paris-Grignon was a French grande école. It was created in 1971 by merging the Institut national agronomique and the École nationale supérieure d'Agronomie de Grignon, thus having a history that goes back to 1826.INA P-G disappeared as an administrative entity on...

, on the Avenue Lucien Brétignières, Thiverval-Grignon

Thiverval-Grignon

Thiverval-Grignon is a commune in the Yvelines department in the Île-de-France in north-central France.-References:*...

, Yvelines

Yvelines

Yvelines is a French department in the region of Île-de-France.-History:Yvelines was created from the western part of the defunct department of Seine-et-Oise on 1 January 1968 in accordance with a law passed on 10 January 1964 and a décret d'application from 26 February 1965.It gained the...

, Île-de-France

Île-de-France (région)

Île-de-France is the wealthiest and most populated of the twenty-two administrative regions of France, composed mostly of the Paris metropolitan area....

, France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

. It is closed to the public but may be visited by groups.

The garden was established sometime before 1979 on a plot of land adjacent to the Arboretum de Grignon

Arboretum de Grignon

The Arboretum de Grignon is an arboretum located within the campus of the Institut des sciences et industries du vivant et de l'environnement on Avenue Lucien Brétignières, Thiverval-Grignon, Yvelines, Île-de-France, France. It is closed to the public but may be visited by groups.The arboretum...

. Today it consists of 34 beds containing about 1,000 taxa

Taxon

|thumb|270px|[[African elephants]] form a widely-accepted taxon, the [[genus]] LoxodontaA taxon is a group of organisms, which a taxonomist adjudges to be a unit. Usually a taxon is given a name and a rank, although neither is a requirement...

 with an emphasis on Graminae, Leguminosae, ornamental plants, and plants of limestone

Limestone

Limestone is a sedimentary rock composed largely of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of calcium carbonate . Many limestones are composed from skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral or foraminifera....

soils. The Association de l'arbre de fer was established in 2001 to protect and enhance the campus' natural environment, and in 2003 it began restoration and enlargement of the arboretum, as well as creation of a botanical trail and rehabilitation of the garden.