| UBC Botanical Garden | |
| Type: | Botanical garden |
| Location: | 6804 S.W. Marine Drive, Vancouver, British Columbia V6T 1Z4 |
| Coords: | , |
| Area: | 44 hectares (110 acres) |
| Operator: | University of British Columbia |
| Founder: | John Davidson |
| Free Label: | Director |
| Free Data: | Dee Ann Benard |
| Status: | Open to the public |
| Parking: | On site |
| Transport: | Bus, campus shuttle |
| Facilities: | Information centre, gift shop, toilets, shelter. |
The UBC Botanical Garden is a botanical garden located on the University of British Columbia campus in Vancouver, British Columbia. It aims to maintain a documented living collection of temperate plants for the purposes of education, research, conservation, community outreach, and public display.[1] Established in 1916, it is the oldest botanical garden at a university in Canada.
It is a member of the Canadian Garden Council, American Public Gardens Association, Botanic Gardens Conservation International, and the Plant Collections Network.
John Davidson, or Botany John, was appointed British Columbia's first provincial botanist in 1911. He was given two assignments: complete a botanical survey of the province's flora and establish a botanical garden and herbarium.[2] Davidson first established an arboretum, nursery, and botanical garden on the hospital lands of Essondale in Coquitlam with the assistance of the patients.
The government then set aside two acres of land (0.8 ha) at the Provincial Colony Farm in Essondale (later called Riverview) near New Westminster for the establishment of the first botanical garden. After the closure of the Office of the Provincial Botanist in 1916, the botanical garden relocated to the UBC campus in West Point Grey. This involved the transport of thousands of perennials and shrubs across forty kilometres of rough roads to the new location.
At UBC, the garden's original site was at the "Old Arboretum". All that remains of it today are the trees planted in 1916 by John Davidson. The old arboretum is now home to many buildings including the First Nations House of Learning.
In 1951, the entire UBC campus was designated as a botanical garden. The head of the Botany Department, Dr. T.M.C. (Tommy) Taylor, was appointed the Garden Director.
After several years of changing scope and mandate, eventually in 1966 land was set aside near Thunderbird Stadium on the south end of the University campus for a stand-alone botanical garden. Dr. Roy Taylor was hired as the first director of UBC Botanical Garden at its current site.
The garden measures approximately 44 hectares (440,000 m2 / 110 acres) and includes a curated collection of 120,000 accessions representing over 6000 taxa with a significant collection of Magnolia, Acer (plant), Sorbus (mountain ash, Styracaceae (storax family), Rhododendron and climbing plants.[3] Visitors to the garden can expect to spend a minimum of one hour exploring the various areas of the garden.
There is also a series of small gardens of special interest and naturalized areas that dot the grounds of UBC Botanical Garden, including: the Pacific Slope Garden, Arbour Garden, Winter Garden, Perennial Borders Garden, Grow Green Demonstration Area, Contemporary Garden, Cattail Marsh, Walk in the Woods Trail.
UBC Botanical Garden also administers the Nitobe Memorial Garden, a traditional Japanese garden located on the north end of campus.
In 2002, the UBC Centre for Plant Research became the research arm of the UBC Botanical Garden. The Centre for Plant Research examines topics such as plant adaptation, genomics and phytochemistry. The Botanical Garden and the Centre for Plant Research are both encompassed by UBC's Faculty of Science.
Since 2012, UBC Botanical Garden has offered an 8-month provincially accredited Horticulture Training Program (HTP). The full-time program, which runs from August-April, introduces students to, among other areas, principles and techniques of landscape construction and design, garden ecology, plant biology and health, the role of soil in natural and constructed landscapes, ornamental and food crop management, and hands-on landscape and garden management.[4]