| Name: |
Komarov Botany Museum
and the Botanical Gardens |
| |
 |
| Address: |
2 ulitsa Professora Popova
(metro station: Petrogradskaya) |
| Phone: |
+7 (812) 346-3639 |
| Open: |
11 am - 5pm, Wednesdays, Saturdays and
Sundays |
| Description: |
In 1714, Peter the Great ordered
that a market garden for the cultivation of medicinal herbs
be constructed on Aptekarsky Island. Subsequently, a large
research and educational centre, the Botanical Gardens, emerged
here. The Botanical Museum of the Russian Academy of Sciences
was founded in 1823.
The museum's superb collection, totalling over 80,000 specimens
of plant life, is based on the arboretum of Peter's Kunstkammer
and collections contributed by many Russian botanists and
travellers, including Nikolai Przhevalsky, Grigory Potanin,
Vsevolod Roborovsky and Vladimir Komarov, after whom the museum
is named.
The exhibition focuses on four main themes: world vegetation;
the history and evolution of plants; Russia's vegetable resources;
and plants and man. The displays within the museum are supplemented
by collections of natural flowers in the Botanical Gardens.
Here one can see both flora that is characteristic of temperate
regions and plants of the Caucasus, the Mediterranean, Central
Asia and North America. The hothouses reproduce the exotic
environment of tropical and subtropical forests and savannahs
all year round. |
