全 文 ：Prospects for Chinese Botanical Gardens*
Shan鄄An HE1,3, Zuo鄄Shuang ZHANG2,3
(1 Nanjing Botanical Garden, Nanjing 210014, China; 2 Beijing Botanical Garden, Beijing 100093, China;
3 Botanical Society of China, Botanical Garden Branch, Beijing 100093, China)
Abstract: In China, a new period of development in the first decade of the 21st Century with rapid urbanization,
was marked by investment in construction of over five billion yuan. At this time of rapid change it is important for
botanical gardens to follow three principles, “scientific contents, artistic appearance, and cultural display冶, so as
not to become public parks. The scientific component is important. It is not necessary for every botanical garden to
do basic botanical research but they should all be involved in plant conservation issues, especially ex鄄situ conserva鄄
tion and keep accurate data on their living collections. Although a heavy responsibility this documentation is the
foundation and the bottom line of scientific meaning for a botanical garden. Economic plant research, exploring new
resources, was a major contribution of botanical gardens historically and remains important for sustainable cities and
the national economy of China. Education and ecotourism are important ways for botanical gardens to serve the pub鄄
lic displaying the interesting plant collections to enhance relaxation and well鄄being. It is reasonable to make income
through all activities in a botanical garden but this should not be the major goal. It should be understood botanical
gardens are comprehensive and multi鄄functional bodies determined by science, the arts and culture.
Key words: Botanical garden; Ex鄄situ conservation; Living collections; Scientific bottom line; Economic plants
CLC number: Q 94-339摇 摇 摇 摇 摇 Document Code: A摇 摇 摇 摇 摇 Article ID: 2095-0845(2011)01-019-05
摇 During the 21 st century, there has been tremen鄄
dous development in China忆s botanical gardens. Al鄄
though the statistics are incomplete, over 20 cities
have newly built and extended botanical gardens.
Following the suggestion of the China National Bo鄄
tanical Garden Annual Conference, Nanning in
2009, Xizang Autonomous District has been pre鄄
pared to build the botanical gardens in Lhasa. Dur鄄
ing the first decade of this century, the total invest鄄
ment in the construction of botanical gardens is over
five billion yuan, mirroring China忆s overall economic
prosperity.
Evolution of Chinese botanical gardens and
new developing opportunities
The feature of Chinese botanical gardens at the
new developing stage is characterized by not only an
adding in quantity, but also an improving in scale.
Compared with previous investment, there is a great
increase. Looking back to the development of the
domestic botanical gardens, it can be divided into
three phases pre鄄1950, post鄄1950 and post鄄2000.
摇 摇 The earliest Chinese botanical garden in modern
times was in form the Hongkong Zoological and Bo鄄
tanical Garden established in 1871. Judging from
the context of the modern natural science develop鄄
ment in China, “China忆 s modern scientific knowl鄄
edge system is not derived from the Chinese tradi鄄
tional culture, but the results of the spread of West鄄
ern science in China. China忆s modern science organi鄄
zation is also not derived from the Chinese traditional
organization (Fan, 2000)冶. In China the earliest bo鄄
植 物 分 类 与 资 源 学 报摇 2011, 33 (1): 19 ~ 23
Plant Diversity and Resources摇 摇 摇 摇 摇 摇 摇 摇 摇 摇 摇 摇 摇 摇 摇 摇 DOI: 10. 3724 / SP. J. 1143. 2011. 10216
* Foundation items: Supported by Chinese Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Foundation
Received date: 2010-12-09, Accepted date: 2010-12-25
HE Shan鄄An, prof. emeritus, engaged in plant introduction and acclimatization, plant conservation and botanical garden science for more
than 50 years; E鄄mail: sahe@ jsmail. com. cn
tanical garden, with modern plant taxonomy intro鄄
duced from the West was Hangzhou Botanical Gar鄄
den, Zhejiang University (1927 -1969). By 1949,
when the People忆 s Republic of China was estab鄄
lished, there were a handful of botanical gardens.
In the second half of the 20 th century, there
were two peaks during the development of Chinese
botanical gardens. The first appeared in the 1950s,
with an increase to 22 botanical gardens by 1960.
The second appeared during the 1980s-1990s, and
around 2000, there were altogether about 140 botan鄄
ical gardens (He et al., 2005). The botanical gar鄄
den system in China has contained certain scale, at鄄
tracting attention of the worldwide botanical gardens.
In the 21 st Century, China has completed the
“warm and well鄄fed冶 type of society in economic
terms and is further advancing to the “ well鄄off冶 .
The national botanical garden development is now
very strong. According to incomplete statistics, Chi鄄
na currently has more than 200 botanical gardens of
which about 30 percent undertake research. The
non鄄research gardens remain important. Overall
however the scientific tradition of Chinese botanic
gardens needs to improve. This essay expands on
why this is important.
The space鄄idea design concept for botanical
garden landscape
The botanical garden is a special form of garden
with more emphasis on research and education.
Each botanical garden may have an exquisite land鄄
scape appearance鄄an important way to keep in touch
with visitors. “ Scientific content, artistic appear鄄
ance, and cultural display冶 is the principle of the
botanical garden in China. Among many of China忆s
beautiful botanical garden landscapes, the following
two examples contain classic elements. One is the
Metaseqouia collection located in the Yingtaogou Re鄄
serve of Beijing Botanical Garden (Fig. 1). This is
based on the ex situ conservation of Metaseqouia.
Bridges and a pavilion have been built to maintain
the soil structure without excessive compaction. A
poem written by botanist Dr. Hu is engraved at the
site. When tourists visit the site they not only see
the grand appearance of the Metaseqouia population,
but also learn about its discovery; plant evolution
and historical botany. The guiding principle of the
scenic interpretation can be named “Space鄄idea de鄄
sign concept冶 . The other example is the “ Long鄄
dong鄄qi鄄lin冶 in the South China Botanical Garden
(Fig. 2). Behind the wide water surface, there are
two pieces of plant green screens: one is the tapering
Taxodium symbolizing the subtropical plants, and
the other is the palms representing tropical plants.
People experience visual beauty, but also informa鄄
tion from the “ plant languages冶 that this botanical
garden focuses on research into subtropical and trop鄄
ical plants. The water extends into the two areas of
trees symbolically leading thoughts far away in the
same way as research is far鄄reaching. The landscape
mainly shows that the plant landscape combines so
closely with the scientific content that it forms space鄄
idea design concept and the scientific content pene鄄
trates into the garden landscape. These landscapes
possess the botanical gardens忆 special classic sense,
differing from the general park landscape.
The scientific bottom line 鄄 living collections
and information systems
Amongst the broad range of science associated
with botanical gardens, plant conservation, and es鄄
pecially ex鄄situ conservation is of fundamental impor鄄
tance. This role has given societal recognition to bo鄄
tanical gardens. With the intense changes in the
global climate, increasing attention is paid to ex鄄situ
conservation. This is not only the need of plant con鄄
servation, but also the bridge between the wild
plants and the cultivated plants. Living collections
and associated information system are the basis of
the botanical gardens. According to Botanic Garden
Conservation International (BGCI), there are about
100 000 species collected in botanical gardens all
around the world. The data of Chinese Academy of Sci鄄
ences (CAS) Botanical Garden Working Committee,
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Fig. 1摇 Metasequoia valley in Yingtaogou Reserve. Scenery spot with scientific meanings
as well as historical significance and cultural atmosphere
Fig. 2摇 Typical botanical garden landscape with plant language and scientific meanings
121 期摇 摇 摇 摇 摇 摇 摇 摇 摇 摇 摇 HE and ZHANG: Prospects for Chinese Botanical Gardens摇 摇 摇 摇 摇 摇 摇 摇 摇 摇 摇 摇 摇
indicates there were 24 600 species in its subordina鄄
ted 10 botanical gardens, accounting for one fourth
in the world. That is an encouraging number. But
integrity of the information is often poor. The scien鄄
tific significance of living collections must depend on
accurate and complete scientific records. The infor鄄
mation system provides the information for the scien鄄
tific research, utilization, conservation and educa鄄
tion. It has to be an essential of every botanical gar鄄
den.
Recently, a term of “city or municipal botani鄄
cal冶 garden was launched (Kuzewanov, 2010; Yin
and Xia, 2003). If it is in contrast with “ rural bo鄄
tanical garden冶, this is acceptable. However if this
term implies that the garden is similar to a recrea鄄
tional display garden and does not maintain scientific
data for their living collections, the concept may not
be helpful. Every botanical garden, without excep鄄
tion, by definition should have a well documented
living collection.
Since the 1960s, Chinese botanical gardens
have paid attention to the need for collection docu鄄
mentation. At the meeting of the National Confer鄄
ence on Plant Introduction and Acclimatization, Lus鄄
han in 1965, a proposal for living collections were
put forward, naming the six most basic documenta鄄
tion requirements (Yu and Zhou, 1965). Unfortu鄄
nately this has not been fully implemented. In
1988, the State Natural Sciences Foundation, China
gave the first support project. In 1990, based on the
achievement of the project, a nationwide training
course was held, with international experts including
the founder of BG Base, Dr. K. Walter, and the
Dr. D. C. Michener who investigated the living col鄄
lection records in the late 1980s at the Arnold arbo鄄
retum, the US ( Schmidt et al., 1989 ). Later,
many botanical gardens in China carried on this
work. But it has always fluctuated, and could not
approach the proper level of standardization, unity,
and sustainability. In 2010 at the outset of the pro鄄
ject on Standardization of Checklist and Information
for Botanical Gardens, the records of some botanical
gardens were rather incomplete and overall the living
collection information system of Chinese botanical
gardens remains relatively weak. Consequently, it
should be made obviously clear that as the botanical
garden, this is the “ bottom line冶 of the botanical
gardens忆 scientific significance, and the key to
maintain the essence of the botanical gardens. Oth鄄
erwise, there is no difference between the botanical
garden and the park.
Carrying out the edu鄄tourism characteris鄄
tically
The botanical garden is comprehensive in its
roles acting as a compound of science, art, and cul鄄
ture. Science popularization is one of important roles
of the botanical garden, starting from the principle of
“Learning through playing冶. Therefore, the botani鄄
cal garden must have appealing displays with diverse
plants and attractive environment together with ap鄄
propriate visitor facilities.
Science popularization should be based on the
Garden忆s own plant resources. Its content, should
be original based on the unique possibilities of the
Garden. At this time of global ecological change and
urbanization environmental education is indispensa鄄
ble. The botanical garden can “ cultivate冶 people
and provide enlightening and interactive experi鄄
ences. The Edu鄄tourism can charge suitably, but its
aim should not consist solely of gaining profits or val鄄
uing its effect based only on financial profit. Some
forms of entertainment may not be suitable in botani鄄
cal gardens. The Hunan Forest Botanical Garden,
for example, cancelled some forms of entertainment
items like “ the bumper car冶. This is considered a
good choice.
Research on economic plants
One of the motivations in the formation of bo鄄
tanical gardens in Europe in the 16 th century was the
study of plant utilization especially for medicine.
Later in the European colonial era of the 18 th鄄19 th
century, with the development of the capitalism,
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many industries were developing and new plant re鄄
sources were sought and developed through botanical
gardens. The demand for plant resources for food,
health and new products has not decreased. China
has such important natural plant diversity that Chi鄄
nese botanical gardens should continues their impor鄄
tant and urgent research on economic plants.
The past research achievements on economic
plants such as tobacco, grapes, Chinese yam and
rubber tree has played an important role in the na鄄
tional economy. Current areas of research include
the exploration of native lawn resources; new stress
resistant trees, new hybrids of Taxodium distichum
and T. mucronatum; new cultivars of high nutrition
Actinidia fruit; the world fever (Strik, 2005) of the
blueberry introduction and cultivation; new cultivars
of ornamental plants and so on. These kind of pro鄄
jects should be the obligations of China忆 s national
botanical garden network, particularly the gardens
involved in research. Botanical gardens have an im鄄
portant opportunity to be recognized for their role in
influencing economic development as well as sup鄄
porting the ecological environment.
Contribution of botanical gardens
The outputs of botanical gardens are varied and
cannot all be related to financial income. If over鄄sim鄄
plified and considered only in terms of income gener鄄
ation, botanical gardens will become a form of a鄄
musement park. Most of the contributions to society
made by the botanical gardens are “software冶, affect鄄
ing human well鄄being, the ecological landscape and
improvement of the urban environment. It is difficult
to convert these values directly into currency terms.
The function and benefits of botanical gardens
are complex, and outputs, to a great extent, in鄄
crease the “soft power冶 of a city, an area and even
a country. For comprehensive, coordinated and sus鄄
tainable development of city and society, the botani鄄
cal garden can be considered essential. Concepts of
investment and output for botanical gardens should
be understood realistically, in order that more sup鄄
port can be offered by society for the important work
of botanical garden.
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