Geographical Areas

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GEOGRAPHICAL AREAS

NAME OF THE LOCAL AREA
Botanic Garden of Iasi

COUNTRY
Romania

CITY
Iasi

THEMATIC AREA
Biology

WEB SITE
http://botanica.uaic.ro/home_en.htm

DESCRIPTION OF THE LOCAL AREA
The Botanical Garden, now named after its founder, Anastasie Fătu, is a located in the Copou hill, Iasi, Romania. It was founded in 1856 and it is the oldest and largest botanical garden in Romania. It has 2,000 species of native and exotic plants.
The Botanical Garden hosts eighty-five species included in the Red Book of plants with risk of extinction protected in Romania and also by International Conventions. The Garden has an area of over eighty acres and is divided into twelve sections. The Romanian Flora and Vegetation Section is the largest section, and represents the main types and zones of vegetation from Romania. One of the best attractions of the garden in winter is the Greenhouses Complex Section, which is about 4,000 square metres and includes 12 greenhouses, which shelter plant collections from sub-tropical, tropical and equatorial regions, from all continents. In summer the most popular destination is The Rosary Section (the Rose–Garden, 4.2-acres); it groups together approximately 600 varieties of roses, distributed in horticultural groups, taking into account their sizes, forms and colors. The collection is unique in Romania and it was recognized by The World Federation of Rose Societies.

PICTURES


	The Iași Botanical Garden	The Iași Botanical Garden, now named after its founder, Anastasie Fătu (Romanian: Grădina Botanică \"Anastasie Fătu\"), is a botanical garden located in the Copou neighbourhood of Iași, Romania. Established in the year 1856 and maintained by the Alexandru Ioan Cuza University, it is the oldest and largest botanical garden in Romania.
	The Greenhouses Complex Section	The Greenhouses Complex Section, on about 4,000 square metres (43,000 sq ft), includes 12 greenhouses, which shelter plant collections (approximate 2600 taxa) native especially of sub-tropical, tropical and equatorial zones of the globe, from all the continents.
	The Rosary Section (the Rose–Garden)	The Rosary Section (the Rose–Garden), on 1.7-hectare (4.2-acre), groups together approximately 600 varieties of roses, distributed in horticultural groups, taking into account their proportions, forms and colors
	The Romanian Flora and Vegetation Section	The Romanian Flora and Vegetation Section is the largest section, with a 25-hectare (62-acre) area, and is divided into six geographical sub-sections: Moldova, Transylvania, Banat, Muntenia, Oltenia, Dobruja. It represents, on the vertical, the main types and zones of vegetation from Romania and, on the horizontal, the flora and vegetation of each Romanian historical province.
	Banana tree	The first greenhouses in the Botanical Garden, we can find plants from the subtropical climate area, of Mediterranean type. Here we can find: the olive tree, the fig tree, banana tree.
	Cactus	The Greenhouses Complex Section includes a variety of cactus plants, member of the plant family Cactaceae, a family comprising about 127 genera with some 1750 known species. Cactus spines are produced from specialized structures called areoles, a kind of highly reduced branch. Areoles are an identifying feature of cacti. As well as spines, areoles give rise to flowers, which are usually tubular and multipetaled. Many cacti have short growing seasons and long dormancies, and are able to react quickly to any rainfall, helped by an extensive but relatively shallow root system that quickly absorb any water reaching the ground surface.
	Lake	Romanian Flora and Vegetation section is occupied by a lake with an area of 2.1 ha which gather, among many hydrophilic flora species we can find also the yellow water lilies (Nuphar luteum).
	Aloe	Aloe, is a genus containing over 500 species of flowering succulent plants. The most widely known species is Aloe Vera, or \"true aloe\", so called because, though probably extinct in the wild, it is cultivated for assorted pharmaceutical purposes. Is native to tropical and southern Africa, Madagascar, Jordan, the Arabian Peninsula, and various islands in the Indian Ocean. Most Aloe species have a rosette of large, thick, fleshy leaves. Aloe flowers are tubular, frequently yellow, orange, pink, or red.
	Ficus	Ficus is a pan-tropical genus of trees, shrubs and vines occupying a wide variety of ecological niches; most are evergreen, but some deciduous species are endemic to areas outside of the tropics and to higher elevations. The identification can be relatively easy to recognize. Many have aerial roots and a distinctive shape or habit, and their fruits distinguish them from other plants. The fig fruit is an enclosed inflorescence, sometimes referred to as a syconium, an urn-like structure lined on the inside with the fig\'s tiny flowers.

VIDEO


The Greenhouses Complex Section Video shows images from the Greenhouses Complex Section of the Iași Botanical Garde, the oldest and largest botanical garden in Romania related to succulent plants, plants that retain and accumulate water in vegetative organs: Cactus and Aloe sections