KU Botanical Garden

Coordinates: 55.751387 21.135708

Object address: Kretingos street 92, Klaipeda, Lithuania

Municipality: Klaipėda

In 1991 after the establishment of Klaipėda University and developing study programmes in Biology, Ecology and Recreation, the university needed a scientific research base. This was the reason for the foundation of Klaipėda University Botanical Garden in 1993. The Botanical Garden was established in the territory of the former manor of the Great Tauralaukis, located in Danė river valley. The manor did not survive to this day, but you can still visit the grave of Evaldas fon Mirbachas, the owner of the manor, buried at the manor’s cemetery, which is a part of the Botanical Garaden. His grave is marked with a stone stela with an inscription. This nobleman was one of the founders of Memphis Masonic Lodge in Klaipėda. Another famous object of heritage at the Botanical Garden is a fragment of a 19th c. road, which is one of the oldest in the region. The establishment of the Botanical Garden was initiated by Professor A. M. Olšauskas, who was also appointed as its first Director. The total area of the territory is 9.3 ha. KU Botanical Garden cooperates with other botanical gardens and arboretums in Lithuania and abroad, exchanging seeds and green samples, as well as accumulating the fund of cultivated plants. The garden features more than 250 plant species and about 40 thousand plants overall. Valuable plants are accumulated and exhibited at four collections: the dendrological, herbaceous ornamental plant, roses and medical-herbs. The garden is currently developing coastal dune plant and bulb plant collections, a winder exhibition and an ethnographic flower garden. The pride of the Botanical Garden is the Japanese Ginkgo biloba. The garden is established in a territory, characterised by exceptional climatic conditions: a higher air temperature, higher level of rainfall and a longer plant vegetation period than anywhere else in Lithuania. In 2000 the Ministry of Environment of the Republic of Lithuania granted the Botanical Garden the status of a protected natural object. In 2012 the city has built a bicycle trail through the garden.

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