Мельбурн мен Кранбурн ботаникалық бағдары

Botanic gardens at Melbourne and Cranbourne

Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria are botanic gardens across two sites–Melbourne and Cranbourne. Melbourne Gardens was founded in 1846 when land was reserved on the south side of the Yarra River for a new botanic garden. It extends across that slope to the river with trees, garden beds, lakes and lawns. It displays almost 50,000 individual plants representing 8,500 different species. when land was acquired by the Gardens on Melbourne's south eastern urban fringe for the purpose of establishing a garden dedicated to Australian plants. A generally wild site that is significant for biodiversity conservation, it opened to the public in 1989. On the site, visitors can explore native bushland, heathlands, wetlands and woodlands. It also includes Australia's most comprehensive botanical library.

The gardens include a mixture of native and non native vegetation which invariably hosts a diverse range of both native and non native fauna. The gardens host over 10,000 floral species, the majority being non native species. The gardens were the origin from which many introduced species spread throughout south eastern Australia as seeds were traded between early European botanists in the mid 19th century, studying the Australian flora.

From the establishment of the gardens in 1846, much of the native vegetation was removed as botanists such as Baron Von Mueller planted a range of species from around the world. While initially much of the native wetlands and swamplands in the gardens were left, around the turn of the 20th century these were re landscaped to create the Ornamental Lake. Despite this, however, there are some large eucalypts remaining including the prominent Separation Tree, a 300 year old River Red Gum, under which Victoria was declared a separate colony. In August 2010 the Separation Tree was attacked by vandals and then attacked again in 2013, by 2015 it was dead and removal of the canopy and branches commenced. The Royal Botanic Gardens, Cranbourne focus solely on Australian native plants.

The Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne were initially intended to be a horticultural exhibition for the public to enjoy, many seeds were traded between early European botanists such as Arthur and Von Mueller, who planted non native species. The Queen and her grandfather, Dame Nellie Melba and Paderewski contributed plantings on occasions throughout the history of the gardens.

Since its earliest days, the Royal Botanic Gardens is involved in plant research and identification. This is done primarily through the National Herbarium of Victoria, which is based at the Gardens. The Herbarium is also home to the State Botanical Collection, which includes over 1.5 million dried plant specimens, and an extensive collection of books, journals and artworks. Research findings are published in the journal Muelleria, which is a scientific representation of the work done in the Gardens in any one year. More recently, the Australian Research Centre for Urban Ecology has been established to look at plants that grow in urban environments specifically.

The Ian Potter Foundation Children's Garden is designed as a discovery area for children of all ages and abilities. The Ian Potter Children's Garden, named for the Ian Potter Foundation, is based in South Yarra, off the main site. This area is closed for two months of the year from the end of the Victorian July school holidays for rest and maintenance. In 2004 or 2005 The Magic Pudding sculpture, by Louis Laumen, was unveiled in the garden. The concept for the garden was developed by Simon H. Warrender (son of Simon George Warrender and Pamela Warrender), who also commissioned the sculpture, through Committee for Melbourne's Future Focus Group, which was founded by Pamela. Simon Warrender announced the establishment of the annual prizes to be awarded by his Melbourne Prize Trust at the unveiling.