Jardin des plantes de Montpellier, Historic botanical garden in Montpellier, France

The Jardin des plantes de Montpellier covers 4.6 hectares on Boulevard Henri IV, with about 2,000 species grown outdoors and 1,000 under glass. Its oldest section, the Montagne de Richer, holds a Cistaceae collection and a systematic garden arranged by the Bentham & Hooker system of 1883. The orangery, built 1802–1806 by Claude-Mathieu Delagardette, and the Martins greenhouse of 1860 stand among the beds.

Henri IV's letters patent of 8 December 1593 entrusted Pierre Richer de Belleval with a royal garden for simples and all manner of plants, foreign and domestic, modelled on Padua's garden of 1545. Richer published its catalogue in 1598, but the Wars of Religion destroyed the garden during the siege of Montpellier in 1622 and he had to start again. The orangery followed in 1802-1806, the Martins greenhouse in 1860.

The garden's name comes from the medicinal "simples" it was created to grow for future physicians and apothecaries. Pierre Richer de Belleval published its first catalogue in 1598. About 250 plants of traditional Mediterranean medicine and herbs still occupy a dedicated section, and some fifteen busts of the physician-naturalists who worked here stand among the beds.

The garden opens Tuesday to Sunday, from 12:00 to 20:00 between 1 June and 30 September, and from 12:00 to 18:00 from 1 October to 31 May; entry is free. Trams 1, 4 and 5 stop at Place Albert Ier, and bus lines 6 and 7 also serve the area. Step-free access is arranged on request with staff.

The male Ginkgo biloba in the arboretum was planted in the late 18th century and is singled out in the garden's own records. The oldest section, the Montagne de Richer, is an artificial mound built to imitate a natural hillside and now holds a collection of Cistaceae. The garden also keeps the legendary tomb of Narcissa, daughter of the poet Edward Young, who died in 1810.