TU Delft Botanic Garden

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Netherlands - Delft

Institution Code: DELF

BGCI Member: Yes

About the TU Delft Botanic Garden

TU Delft Botanic Garden was founded on its present location in 1917. During the first decades the garden was involved mainly in education of students who specialized for positions in tropical countries, especially the Dutch East Indies, now Indonesia.

The 'Applied Botanic Garden'has expanded its collection of 'useful'plants and covers now over 6000 taxa. Nowadays, the garden still retains applied plants as a major topic. Many applied research programs are based on the plant collection. All applications of plants comprise the core business of the garden and put the garden as a centre of expertise of applied sciences in the Netherlands.

Current Applied Research Programs:
1. Electrospraying of Taxus baccata. Electrostatic hydrodynamic atomisation (EDHA) induces the formation of aerosols from liquid plant components such as the precursors of Taxol and Taxotere.
2. Plants as biofilter. Removal of heavy metals in water from tropical mining. Cyperus papyrus, Pistia stratiotes and Eichornia crassipes can absorb and survive high concentrations of heavy metals. Research concentrates on plant deposits and optimalization.
3. Drought resistance research with Aloe vera in order to restore plant growth and the water table in extremely arid areas.
4. Study of wave patterns and wave characteristics in various mangrove forests in Vietnam in order to understand and to use mangrove as a natural coastal defence.
5. High-performance (bio)composites reinforced with natural fibres.
6. UV protection based on cuticular plant waxes.
7. Improve the stability of dikes in the tropics with Vetiveria zizanoides (matrix roots)and Cuperus rotundus (mat roots).
8. Development of a new type of "green" noise barrier.

Current Other Research:
9. Phenology of plants in greenhouses.
10. Design of a new public park in Sao Paulo (Brazil), includes a halophyte filter, an aeration system of water and furthermore displays of rare local trees and useful trees as an educational target.
11. The garden host research of purification of harbour mud (Department of Biotechnology TU Delft). Modified, enzymatically active bacteria purify mud from harbours of Belgium,Germany, France and The Netherlands. Algae are applied to revitalize the resulting waste water.

Main Address:
TU Delft Botanic Garden
Poortlandplein 6
Gate: Poortlandplein 6
Delft
NL- 2628 BM Netherlands

Telephone: +31 15 2782356/2789396
Fax: +31 15 2782355
URL: www.botanischetuin.tudelft.nl
Primary Email: Botanischetuin@TUDelft.nl

Staff Details

  • Director's Name: Dr. James W. Byng
    Curator's Name: Dr. James W. Byng
    Plant Records Officer's Name: Dr. James W. Byng
  • Total Staff:
    Horticultural Staff Number: 8
    Educational Staff Number: 2
    Research Staff Number: 2
    Administration Staff Number: 1

About the Garden

  • Institution Type: Botanic Garden
  • Status
  • Status: Private: No
    Status: State: Yes
    Status: Educational: Yes
    Status: Municipal: No
    Status: Satellite: No
    Status: Trust: No
  • Date founded: 1917
  • Physical Data
  • Natural Vegetation Area: No
  • Landscaped Area: Yes
    Landscaped Area: Size: 3 Hectares
  • Total Area: 3 Hectares
    Latitude: 51.9984
    Longitude: 4.3759
    Annual Rainfall: 780 mm
    Altitude: 0.00 Metres
    Total area of glasshouses: 710 Metres
    Total area of shadehouses: 300 Metres
  • Locality: Information
  • Locality: Garden Name: Botanische Tuin, TU Delft
  • Local Address: Poortlandplein 6, 2628 BM Delft
  • Locality: City: Delft
  • Locality: State:

Features and Facilities

  • Herbarium: No
    Arboretum: Yes
  • Micropropagation/ Tissue Culture Facilities: No
    Seed Bank: Yes
    Published Plant Catalogue: No
    Computer Plant Record System: Yes
  • Open to public: Yes
    Friends society: Yes
    Retail Outlet: Shop: Yes
    Retail Outlet: Plant Sales: Yes
    Disabled access: Yes
  • Number of Visitors: 43000
    Number of Volunteers: 45

Plant Collections

  • Accession Number: 6000
    Cultivation Taxa Num: 3507
  • Special Collections:The collection focus is on useful plants.

    specialisations (counted as per January 2009):
    Cannaceae:1 genus, 8 species, 38 cultivars
    Cercidiphyllaceae*:1 genus, 2 species, 1 cultivar
    Costaceae:4 genera,48 species,6 cultivars
    Eucommiaceae*: 1 genus, 1 species
    Hamamelidaceae:15 genera,44 species,28 cultivars
    Heliconiaceae: 1 genus, 5 species, 3 cultivars
    Marantaceae:16 genera, 96 species, 38 cultivars
    Menispermaceae:6 genera, 13 species
    Musaceae:4 genera, 34 species, 4 cultivars
    Myristicaceae*: 4 genera, 39 species, 60 cultivars
    Platanaceae*: 1 genus, 4 species, 6 cultivars
    Strelitziaceae: 1 genus, 6 species
    Theaceae*: 7 genera, 23 species, 1 cultivar
    Thymelaeaceae: 1 genus, 16 species, 4 cultivars
    Zingiberaceae: 20 genera,104 species, 15 cultivars
    Genus Lavandula: 1 genus, 14 species, 23 Cultivars

    *Families and genera that are part of the Dutch National Plant Collection, a national list of complementary special collections in botanic gardens. Other families and applied plants are part of the decentralized Dutch Plant Collection.Myristicaceae: all species of wild origin and a complete as possible genetic set of M. fragrans Houtt.
    Costaceae: 10 living type specimens, at least two endangered species

Conservation Programmes

  • Conservation Programme: Yes
    Medicinal Plant Programme: Yes
    Ex Situ Conservation Programme: Yes
    Reintroduction Programme: No

Research Programmes

  • Biotechnology: Yes
    Conservation - Biology: Yes
    Data Management Systems and Information Technology: Yes
    Ecology: Yes
    Education: Yes
    Ethnobotany: Yes
    Urban Environments: Yes

Education Programmes

  • Education Signs in Garden: Yes
    Public Lectures/Talks: Yes
    Education Booklets/Leaflets: Yes
    Guided Tours: Yes
    Permanent Public Displays: Yes
    Special Exhibitions: Yes
    Courses for School Children: Yes
    Courses for General Public: Yes