Jardin des Plantes de Poitiers, Botanical garden in Poitiers, France.

Jardin des Plantes de Poitiers covers 1.5 hectares at 1 rue du Jardin des Plantes, laid out as an English park with winding paths, a pond, a waterfall and a grotto. Its 200 m² tropical greenhouse, rebuilt in 1994, shelters 145 plants including bromeliads, cacti and orchids, while about a hundred species of trees and shrubs grow outside.

Poitiers' first Jardin des Plantes was set up in 1621 by Paschal Le Coq, dean of the Faculty of Medicine. The garden moved eight times before professors of medicine established it in 1869 on the former grounds of the Hôtel-Dieu, where it still stands beside the IAE Poitiers.

The garden takes its name from its role as a teaching resource for medicine and natural sciences, and today locals use it as a place to learn about plants and their practical applications. You can observe different plant families growing side by side and understand how they connect to human health.

The garden is accessible throughout the year, though daily opening times vary by season to follow natural daylight. During wet weather some paths can become slippery, so appropriate footwear is recommended.

A heated greenhouse within the garden houses a collection of tropical plants that could not survive in this climate otherwise. This space reveals how diverse the plant world is beyond European species.