Botanical Garden, Botanical garden in Jena, Germany.

The Botanical Garden Jena covers 4.5 hectares at Fürstengraben 26, opposite the Thuringian University and State Library. Its outdoor grounds hold an arboretum of about 900 tree and shrub species, an alpine garden of roughly 2,500 species, a systematic garden, and a hill with a pond. Five greenhouses range from a cactus and succulent house to a palm and tropical house, an evolution house with cycads and tree ferns, and a tropical aquatic house with Victoria cruziana.

The garden began in 1586 as a hortus medicus for the medical faculty of the University of Jena, founded in 1548; the 1579 request of rector Johannes von Schröter to Elector August of Saxony led to its creation. Werner Rolfinck, called from Padua in 1628, reorganised and enlarged it around 1630. A second plot of about 1.3 hectares was donated in 1640, and a 1659 catalogue by Johann Theodor Schenck listed over 1300 plant taxa in both gardens. The first heated greenhouse followed in 1674, allowing tropical plants to be kept.

The garden belongs to Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena and remains an active research space for plant studies. You can observe how different plant species are examined and recorded, especially among medicinal and useful varieties.

The garden is open most days, with extended hours during warmer months and shorter hours in colder seasons. Visitors should wear comfortable shoes and check ahead if interested in specific plant collections to confirm which sections are accessible.

The collection holds thousands of different plant species from around the world, with special holdings of trees and alpine plants cultivated in separate zones. This diversity makes the garden an important place for understanding different ecosystems in a single location.