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The Great Britain Guide

Botanic gardens · East of England

Cambridge University Botanic Garden

Cambridge's 40-acre teaching botanic garden — taxonomic beds, Henslow's 1846 founding.

Cory Lodge, Cambridge - geograph.org.uk - 614767

Derek Harper — CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons licence

Plan your visit

Typical visit
1 h–2 h

About

Cambridge University Botanic Garden, founded by John Henslow in 1846, is the working garden of Cambridge's Department of Plant Sciences. 40 acres of formal collections — the Systematic Beds (every major plant family arranged for taxonomic comparison), the Glasshouse Range, the British Wild Flower Garden — plus a working hot-house and the original collection from Charles Darwin's tutor.

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From the Wikipedia article

The Cambridge University Botanic Garden is a botanical garden located in Cambridge, England, associated with the university Department of Plant Sciences (formerly Botany School). It lies between Trumpington Road to the west, Bateman Street to the north and Hills Road to the east. The garden covers an area of 16 hectares (40 acres). The site is almost entirely on level ground and in addition to its scientific value, the garden is highly rated by gardening enthusiasts. It holds a plant collection of over 8,000 plant species from all over the world to facilitate teaching and research. The garden was created for the University of Cambridge in 1831 by Professor John Stevens Henslow (Charles Darwin's mentor) and was opened to the public in 1846. The second-highest temperature recorded in the UK, 38.7 °C (101.7 °F), was recorded on 25 July 2019 at the garden. The garden held this record for four years until it was broken in 2022, when 40.3 °C (104.5 °F) was recorded in Coningsby, Lincolnshire on 19 July of that year. On this day, the garden broke its own record, reaching 39.9 °C (103.8 °F).

Excerpt from Wikipedia under CC BY-SA 4.0. See the source article linked in Sources below.

Background

History

on Free School Lane was once the home to the Walkerian Garden. Eventually, the University built the Cavendish Laboratory here, but a small patch of garden has been planted with plants representative of the stock of the original garden.]]

Sourced from Wikipedia under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Coordinates
52.1942, 0.1278
Address
Cambridge, England
Official site
www.spri.cam.ac.uk

Sources

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Frequently asked questions

Where is Cambridge University Botanic Garden?
Cambridge University Botanic Garden is in East of England, United Kingdom.
When was Cambridge University Botanic Garden built?
Dates from the Victorian period.
Who owns Cambridge University Botanic Garden?
Cambridge University Botanic Garden is owned by University of Cambridge.
How busy is Cambridge University Botanic Garden?
Cambridge University Botanic Garden draws around 334,461 visitors a year.