Arboretum de Chèvreloup

Chèvreloup Arboretum
Arboretum de Chèvreloup
	Garden
Location	Rocquencourt, France
Type	arboretum
Muséum national d'histoire naturelle network
	Muséum national d'histoire naturelle; Jardin des Plantes; Musée de l'Homme; Ménagerie du Jardin des Plantes; Brunoy Ecology Research Centre; Chèvreloup Arboretum; Jardin botanique exotique de Menton; Marinarium Concarneau Marine Biology Station; Paris Zoological Park (Vincennes Zoo); Cleres Zoological Park; Research and Education Centre on Coastal Systems; Haute Touche Zoological Park; Jaysinia Alpine Garden; Abri Pataud Prehistoric Museum; L’Harmas de Fabre;

The Arboretum de Versailles-Chèvreloup (200 hectares) is a major

Muséum national d'histoire naturelle

, and is open everyday in the warmer months; an admission fee is charged.

History

The site dates to 1699 when

Jardin des Plantes in Paris was too small for a national collection, and in 1922 the conservator of the Estate of Versailles and architect François-Benjamin Chaussemiche

(1864–1945) established today's arboretum as the Jardin de Jussieu, annex to the National Museum of Natural History. In 1940, however, it was abandoned. Planting resumed in 1960, with parts of the arboretum opening to the public in 1977.

Specimens

Today the arboretum contains about 15,000 specimens, representing 124 families, 220 genera, 2700 species and varieties, and 500 cultivars. Its tropical plant collection alone maintains about 5,000 species in greenhouses. The arboretum proper is organized into three major sections:

Systematic botany (50 hectares) - the oldest plantations, started in 1924, with trees grouped by family or genus. Collections include
Quercus, Sorbus, and Tilia
.

Geography (120 hectares) - begun in 1965, with species grouped according to their original natural range. These collections are divided into three areas -

Atlas mountains

. Most species are represented by six subjects planted within a circle of 25 meters diameter.

Ornamental horticulture (25 hectares) - trees cultivars selected for their ornamental properties, including specimens created by grafting and cuttings.

Tree species best represented in the arboretum are

Abies (60 taxa), Sorbus (55 taxa), Crataegus (50 taxa), Fraxinus (45 taxa), Tilia (45 taxa), Viburnum (40 taxa), Cedrus

(20 taxa), and Cupressocyparis (20 taxa).

The arboretum also participates in the conservation of rare and endangered species. At present it conserves 70 species from the list produced by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) and the BGCI (Botanic Gardens Conservation International), including Abies chensiensis, Abies nebrodensis, Malus sikkimensis, Picea obovata, Pinus bungeana, Prumnopitys andina, and Quercus dentata.

References

48°49′49″N 2°06′42″E / 48.83028°N 2.11167°E / 48.83028; 2.11167

Authority control databases
International	ISNI
Geographic	BGCI garden

History

Specimens

See also

References