Botanical Garden to undergo significant renovation to boost research productivity
The garden was founded 215 years ago and is just two years younger than the university itself.
Head of the Botanical Garden Niyaz Salakhov comments, “The Botanical Garden is a multifunctional research and education center. We are studying and introducing plants from the third, fourth and fifth temperature zones in our climate. We work in medicine, botany, plant physiology, and landscape design. One of the most promising areas is studying sugar contents of fruits.”
In the last six years, the Garden has been studying the introduction of decorative and food cultivars from other climate zones; so far, over twenty species have been introduced.
“The university management is planning to create a modernized greenhouse complex to conduct research – both for employees and students. General landscaping and soil works have already taken place. Now we are moving to stage two – creating exhibits of subtropical and tropical species, organizing the paperwork and renovating the facilities,” shared Salakhov.
On 5 – 8 July 2021, experts from several countries are going to convene at the Botanical Garden to partake in the Botanical Gardens in the 21st Century Seminar.
Currently, the Garden lists 1,250 plant species on its territory of 4 hectares. It has an arboretum, a tropical greenhouse, and a subtropical greenhouse.
Among the most prominent specimens are white sakura, magnolia, ginkgo, Osage orange, white acacia, rose acacia, cacti, almond nut, lilac, grape, and oleaster pear.
The tropical greenhouse consists of 100 species, including ginger, banana, pineapple, and much else.
“Monstera deliciosa also grows and blossoms. It has edible fruit. Sometimes we even feed them to our guests. However, they are usually not big fans of it; even for a sweet tooth, the monstera fruit is too sugary,” says Head of Arboretum Department of the Botanical Garden Sergey Maksimov.
The Garden is also famous for its 54 species of peony, which are currently in their blossom season.
As of now, the Botanical Garden is open for visitors at 9a Zirekle street in the southeastern part of Kazan.
Source text: Alina Minnevalieva
Photos: Yuliya Akmurzina
Translation: Yury Nurmeev