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Missouri Botanical Gardens
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
U.S. National Historic Landmark District
Seiwa-en
Location	St. Louis, Missouri
Built	1849
Architect	Multiple
Architectural style	Late Victorian
NRHP reference No.	71001065
Added to NRHP	November 19, 1971

The Missouri Botanical Garden is a botanical garden located in St. Louis, Missouri, and is also known informally as "Shaw's Garden" (named for founder Henry Shaw, a botanist and philanthropist).

Founded in 1859, the Missouri Botanical Garden is one of the oldest botanical institutions in the United States and a National Historic Landmark. The Garden is a center for botanical research and science education of international repute, as well as an oasis in the city of St. Louis, with 79 acres (31 hectares) of horticultural display. It includes a 14 acre (5 hectares) Japanese strolling garden named Seiwa-en, the Climatron geodesic dome conservatory, a children's garden including a pioneer village, a playground, a fountain area, and a water locking system, somewhat similair to the locking system at the Panama Canal, and Osage camp, and Henry Shaw’s original 1850 estate home. It is adjacent to Tower Grove Park, another of Shaw’s legacies.

The gardens have undergone many evolutions in the past 25 years under Dr. Peter Raven, the Garden's director and chief executive. The 2003 annual report lists more than 100 individuals under research, a third of them with PhDs.

Every year the Garden is a place for many cultural festivals including the Japanese Festival and the Chinese Culture Days by the St. Louis Chinese Culture Days Committee. During this time, there are showcases of the culture's botanics as well as cultural arts, crafts, music and food. The Japanese Festival recently began to include sumo wrestling, adding this sport to the taiko drumming and kimono fashion shows already presented. The Garden is known for its Bonsai growing, which can be seen all year round, but is highlighted during the multiple Asian festivals. Major garden features include:

• Blanke Boxwood Garden (1996) - walled parterre with a fine boxwood collection.

• Climatron (1960) and Reflecting Pools - the world's first geodesic dome greenhouse; lowland rain forest with approximately 1500 plants.

• English Woodland Garden (1976) - aconite, azaleas, bluebells, dogwoods, hosta, trillium, etc., beneath tree canopy.

• Linnean House (1882) - Said to be the oldest continually operated greenhouse west of the Mississippi River. Originally Shaw's orangerie; converted largely to camellias in the late 1930's.

• Gladney Rose Garden (1915) - Circular rose garden with arbors.

• Grigg Nanjing Friendship Chinese Garden (1995) - Designed by architect Yong Pan; major features were gifts from sister city Nanjing, and include a moon gate, lotus gate, pavilion, and Chinese scholar's rocks from Tai Hu.

• Seiwa-en Japanese Garden (1977) - chisen kaiyu-shiki (wet strolling garden) with lawns and path set around a central lake (4.5 acres). Designed by Koichi Kawana.

• Tower Grove House (1849) and Herb Garden - Shaw's Victorian country house in the Italianate style, with tower over the central entry way.

• Victory of Science Over Ignorance - Marble statue by Carlo Nicoli; a copy of the original (1859) by Vincenzo Consani in the Pitti Palace, Florence.

Film Director Douglas Trumbull stated on the commentary accompanying the DVD release of the 1972 science fiction classic movie Silent Running, that the geodesic domes containing the last forests of Earth's future on the spaceship Valley Forge were based on the Missouri Botantical Gardens Climatron dome.

From 1991 to 1993 the chairman of the Garden Trustees was William H.T. Bush (younger brother of former President George H.W. Bush).

For part of 2006, the Missouri Botanical Garden featured "Glass in the Garden", with glass sculptures by Dale Chihuly placed throughout the garden.

On May, 2008, St. Louis botanist George Yatskievych and a colleague, with the Missouri Botanical Garden, rediscovered and identified (in Sierra Madre del Sur, a pine oak forest in Mexico's mountains) a rare odd, orange-brown, fleshy-stemmed parasitic plant, first found in 1985 by Wayt Thomas, New York Botanical Garden scientist. A type of Orobanchaceae, the pine cone-shaped dense cluster of flowers and juicy celery-like stalks plant will have the formal Latin name for the "little hermit of Mexico," both a new species and a new genus because "it is so unusual and distinct that it cannot be included in any of the existing genera in the plant family Orobanchaceae". There are echoes in this plant’s lifestyle of species such as Orthilia secunda, which steals its goodness from funghi.

See also

• Shaw Nature Reserve
• List of botanical gardens in the United States

References

1. "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. 2007-01-23.
2. William H.T. (Bucky) Bush - bushodonnell.com - Retrieved January 28, 2008
3. mobot.org, ParasiticPlantRediscovery
4. blogs.nature.com, Parasitic hermit plant found in Mexico - May 01, 2008
5. news.yahoo.com, Scientist rediscovers rare plant unseen since 1985
6. ap.google.com, Scientist rediscovers rare plant unseen since 1985

External links

• Missouri Botanical Garden
• Climatron history and architecture
• The Japanese Garden
• BUILDING BIG: Databank: Climatron (pbs.org)
• Tower Grove Park

References

38°36′51″N 90°15′32″W / 38.614112°N 90.25878°W / 38.614112; -90.25878

• Bonsai Showcased at Missouri Botanical Garden
• The Climatron with artwork installation by Dale Chihuly The Climatron with artwork installation by Dale Chihuly
• Site plan, as of 1974-1977
• Tower Grove House

• Botanical gardens in Missouri
• Culture of St. Louis, Missouri
• 1859 establishments
• National Historic Landmarks in Missouri