Jardim Botânico da Universidade de Lisboa

Institution Code: LISU

BGCI Member: Yes

About the Jardim Botânico da Universidade de Lisboa

The University of Lisbon Botanical Garden was designed in the mid-nineteenth century as a scientific garden. Planting began in 1873 through the initiative of two professors, the Earl of Ficalho and Andrade Corvo, and the garden was inaugurated in 1878.

The great diversity of plants gathered from every corner of the world under Portuguese rule by its earliest gardeners - the German, E. Goeze, and the Frenchman, J. Daveau - illustrated Portugal’s colonial power at the time, though in Europe it was seen as a small and rather peripheral nation.
The systematic collections serve various fields of botanical research, demonstrating to the public and visiting schools the great diversity of plant forms and various ecological processes. They also represent an important and effective way of conserving plants whose survival is threatened.
Some collections deserve a special mention. The outstanding diversity of palms, brought from all continents, confers an unexpectedly tropical atmosphere to several locations in the garden. Cycads, real living fossils representing ancient and mostly extinct floras, are one of the garden’s hallmarks. Nowadays they are extremely rare and certain species are preserved only in botanical gardens. The garden is particularly rich in tropical species from New Zealand, Australia, China, Japan and South America, illustrating the mild climate and the special microclimates produced in the garden