Relevance and Scope of Botanical Garden for Science Learning-

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ONLINE ASSIGNMENT
Topic: Relevance and Scope of Botanical Garden for Science Learning
Submitted by
Veena P. Chandran
Natural science
Reg No: 13392007

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INDEX
SERIAL NUMBER
CONTENT
PAGE NUMBER
1
INTRODUCTION
3
2
BOTANICAL GARDEN
3-4
3
RELEVANCE OF BOTANICAL GARDEN
5
4
EDUCATION AND ENVIRONMENT ETHICS
6-7
5
CONCLUSION
7
6
REFERENCE
8

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RELEVANCE AND SCOPE OF BOTANICAL GARDEN FOR SCIENCE LEARNING
1. INTRODUCTION
A botanical garden is a garden dedicated to the collection, cultivation and display of a wide range of plants labelled with their botanical names. It may contain specialist plant collections such as cacti and succulent plants, her gardens, plants from particular parts of the world, and so on: there may be greenhouses, shade houses, again with special collections such as tropical plants, alpine plants or other exotic plants, visitor services at a botanical garden might include tours, educational displays, art exhibitions, book rooms open air theatrical and musical performances, and other entertainment.
Botanical gardens are often run by universities or other scientific research organizations and often have associated herbaria and research programs in plant taxonomy or some other aspect of botanical service. In principle, their role is to maintain documented collections of living plants for the purposes of scientific research, conservation display and education, although this will depend on the resources available and the special interest pursued at each particular garden.
2. BOTANICAL GARDEN
A botanical garden is a controlled and staffed institution for the maintenance of a living collection of plants under scientific management for purpose of education and research, together with such libraries, herbaria, laboratories, and museums as are essential to its particular undertakings. Each

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botanical garden naturally develops its own special field of interests depending on its personnel, location, extent, available funds and the terms of its charter. It may include green houses, test ground, a herbarium, an arboretum and other departments its maintains a scientific as well as a plant growing staff, and publication is one of its major modes of expression.
A contemporary botanic garden is a strictly protected natural urban green area, where a managing organization creates landscaped gardens and holds documented collections of living plants and / or preserved plant accessions containing functional units of heredity of actual or potential value of for purposes such as scientific research, education public display conservation products and services for improvement of human wellbeing.
The history of botanical garden is closely linked to the history of botany itself. The botanical garden of the 18th and 17th centuries were medicinal gardens but the idea of a botanical garden changed to encompass displays of the beautiful strange, new and sometimes economically important plant trophies being returned from the European colonies and other distant lands. Later, in the 18the century, they became more educational in function demonstrating the latest plant classification systems devised by botanist working in the associated herbaria as they try to order these new treasures. Then, in the 19th century, they became more educational in function demonstrating the latest plant classification systems devised by botanists working in the associated herbaria as they tried to order these new treasures. Then in the 19th and 20th centuries the trend was towards a combination of specialist and eclectic collection demonstrating many aspects of both horticulture and botany.

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3. RELEVANCE OF BOTANICAL GARDEN
The role that botanic garden play is very varied around the world; as institutions they range from small, poorly supported gardens functioning mainly as public parks and recreational sites to major scientific organizations involved in plant research, horticulture, training, environmental education and conservation. Those countries that have well developed botanic garden capable of functioning as broadly based botanical resources canters find them invaluable institution capable of playing an important part in the scientific, environmental and cultural life of the country. The importance and roles of botanic gardens in the conservation and sustainable use of plants is highlighted in the International Agenda for Botanic gardens in Conservation (Culyse Jadson and Sulherland,2000). The International Agenda provides a useful framework for most botanic gardens to use to guide the development of their policies and practices to address local, national and international concerns about biodiversity conservation, environmental education and global sustainability.

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4. EDUCATION AND ENVIRONMENTAL ETHICS
Education and ethics are components of a vital formula for our survival on an ancient but latterly threatened, planet. Already botanists have documented relentless threats facing the topics and their plant stocks. Recent data from the latest IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, released in September 2000 by the International Union for the conservation of Nature indicates that the global extinction crisis is worse than previously believed.
 Not only has the magnitude of risk increased with forest areas shrinking around the world, but the capacity of remaining forest to maintain biodiversity also appears to be diminishing significantly.
 Plant species are declining most rapidly in Central and South America historically important areas for mainly botanical gardens, as well as in Central and West Africa, and Southeast Asia.
 Some plants are no longer found in the wild. Botanists have catalogued and preserved many species of orchids and bromeliads that, because of tropical habitat destruction, many now exist only in green houses.
In short the plants forming the basis of botanical gardens core mission and ethics are under serious threat around the globe. A solid commitment to education and ethics could stem this appalling trend, launching botanical gardens as leaders in ecological stewardship. Many modern botanical gardens started in far different times. Twenty five years ago the threats to tropical systems were not as widely documented as they are now. Then we had barely begun our explanation in the world’s treetops. Today we sense the imminent collapse of entire ecosystems, including many vital habitats for threatened

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plant species. The early mission of botanical gardens prioritized the exploration and cataloguing of the wealth of tropical rain flora that formed the basis of their plant collections. Today exploration and collection of species are increasingly limited by international regulations and botanical gardens are expanding the scope of their mission to be relevant in the next 25 years.
5. CONCLUSION
Without plant conservation, the balance in nature may be irreparably damaged. Botanists now recognize unequivocally the temporal /spatial ecological connections operating with in plant communities. We no longer simply focus on collections of rare and unusual species but also include in situ and ex situ conservation of their ecological associates. Thanks to pioneering efforts during the last 25 years in many remote regions, especially the canopies of tropical rainforests, we now realize how little is known about the diversity and ecological richness of the world’s plants and how much effort is needed to conserve them. Botanical garden can changed the world as flagship institutions for research and education about the plant kingdom. Plants represent the basis of most life on the planet. Like the weight of a petal. A handful of botanical gardens across the globe can help us steward earth’s green mantle and, thereby insure our own survival in an age of ecological crisis.

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6. REFERENCE
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Botanical_gardenhttp://wikipedia.org/
 http://www.bgci.org/ourwork/botanic-gardens/
 http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/75020/botanical- garden
 Wyse Jackson, Peter S. (1999). "Experimentation on a Large Scale – An Analysis of the Holdings and Resources of Botanic Gardens". BGCNews (Richmond, UK: Botanic Gardens Conservation International) 3 (3): 53–72. Retrieved 2009-11-11.