The Parc botanique de Launay (90 hectares), sometimes known as the Parc botanique d'Orsay or the Parc de l'Université Paris XI, is a 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 on the Université Paris-Sud XI

Paris-Sud 11 University

University of Paris-Sud or University of Paris-Sud or University of Paris XI is a French university distributed among several campuses in the southern suburb of Paris...

 campus at 3 rue Georges-Clemenceau, Orsay

Orsay

Orsay is a commune in the Essonne department in Île-de-France in northern France. It is located in the southwestern suburbs of Paris, France, from the center of Paris.Inhabitants of Orsay are known as Orcéens.-History:...

, Essonne

Essonne

Essonne is a French department in the region of Île-de-France. It is named after the Essonne River.It was formed on 1 January 1968 when Seine-et-Oise was split into smaller departments.- History :...

, 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...

, and open daily; admission is free.

The university was created in 1954 on a 240-hectare campus along the river Yvette. In 1965 portions of the campus were designated a botanical park, which today contains about 15,000 plants representing some 2500 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...

, including 333 genera

Genera

Genera is a commercial operating system and development environment for Lisp machines developed by Symbolics. It is essentially a fork of an earlier operating system originating on the MIT AI Lab's Lisp machines which Symbolics had used in common with LMI and Texas Instruments...

 and 99 families. The campus also contains about 550 m² of research greenhouse

Greenhouse

A greenhouse is a building in which plants are grown. These structures range in size from small sheds to very large buildings...

s.

The park's rare and unusual woody plants include Aesculus indica

Aesculus indica

-Description:Indian or Himalayan Horse Chestnut is an attractive tree growing to about 30 meters with a spread to about by 12 meters . It is hardy to -15°C , USDA zones 7-9 . It is in flower from Jun to July, and the seeds ripen in October...

, Alangium platanifolium, Asimina triloba

Asimina triloba

Asimina triloba, the pawpaw, paw paw, paw-paw, or common pawpaw, is a species of Asimina in the same plant family as the custard-apple, cherimoya, sweetsop, ylang-ylang and soursop...

, Baillona juncea, Cornus capitata

Cornus capitata

Cornus capitata is a species of dogwood known by the common names Bentham's cornel, Himalayan flowering dogwood, and evergreen dogwood. It is native to the low-elevation woodlands of the Himalayas in China, India, and surrounding nations and it is naturalized in parts of Australia and New Zealand....

, Cudrania tricuspidata

Cudrania tricuspidata

Maclura tricuspidata is a tree native to East Asia, occasionally grown for its fruit, somewhat similar to that of the related mulberry...

, Daphniphyllum macropodum, Eucalyptus pauciflora

Eucalyptus pauciflora

The Snow Gum is a small tree or large shrub native to eastern Australia.-Habitat:It is usually found in the subalpine habitats of eastern Australia. Snow Gums also grow in lowland habitats where they can reach heights of up to 20 metres. Lowland Snow Gum is sometimes known as White Sallee, Cabbage...

, Firmania simplex, Foresteria neomexicana, Hovenia dulcis

Hovenia dulcis

Hovenia dulcis, the oriental raisin tree, is a hardy tree that occurs from Japan, over Eastern China and Korea to the Himalayas , growing preferably in a sunny position on moist sandy or loamy soils...

, ancient rose

Rose

A rose is a woody perennial of the genus Rosa, within the family Rosaceae. There are over 100 species. They form a group of erect shrubs, and climbing or trailing plants, with stems that are often armed with sharp prickles. Flowers are large and showy, in colours ranging from white through yellows...

s (150 cultivars), Camellia

Camellia

Camellia, the camellias, is a genus of flowering plants in the family Theaceae. They are found in eastern and southern Asia, from the Himalaya east to Korea and Indonesia. There are 100–250 described species, with some controversy over the exact number...

 (140 cultivars), apple

Apple

The apple is the pomaceous fruit of the apple tree, species Malus domestica in the rose family . It is one of the most widely cultivated tree fruits, and the most widely known of the many members of genus Malus that are used by humans. Apple grow on small, deciduous trees that blossom in the spring...

s (93 cultivars), and Madagascar

Madagascar

The Republic of Madagascar is an island country located in the Indian Ocean off the southeastern coast of Africa...

 endemics including Alluaudia

Alluaudia

Alluaudia is a genus of six species of flowering plants endemic to Madagascar, where they form an important component of the Madagascar spiny forests. They are spiny succulent shrubs and trees from 2–20 m tall, with leaves that are deciduous in the long dry season...

 and Pachypodium

Pachypodium

Pachypodium is a genus of succulent spine-bearing trees and shrubs, native to Africa. It belongs to the dogbane family, Apocynaceae. Pachypodium comes from a Latin form from Greek pachus and podion , hence meaning thick-footed.-Genus characteristics:All Pachypodium are succulent plants that...

.