Tel Aviv University Botanical Gardens, Botanical garden at Tel Aviv University, Israel.
Tel Aviv University Botanical Gardens, named after Yehuda Naftali, cover 34 dunams on a kurkar ridge in Ramat Aviv overlooking the Ayalon routes. The largest section, the 12-dunam Nahum Naftulsky garden, holds over 3,300 plant species of Israel plus a water-plant collection. Other sections are a tropical greenhouse, a conservation garden for endangered species, useful-plant and medicinal-plant gardens, a cactus and succulent garden, and the Sarah Racine root research laboratory.
The gardens were founded in 1973 on the kurkar ridge above what is now the Ayalon highway, under the management of Prof. Yaakov Galil, as the legacy of botanist Noach Naftulsky. They took over the university's sponsorship from the older botanical garden in Abu Kabir. In 2019 they were named after the donor Yehuda Naftali.
The space serves students and researchers who conduct botanical and ecological studies on its grounds. Visitors can observe how different plant sections support ongoing scientific work and learning activities.
The gardens are open on most weekdays during daytime hours and have paths accessible to visitors of different abilities. Guided tours are available and help visitors better understand the different plant sections.
The gardens hold a root research laboratory named for Sarah Racine, built to study root structure, physiology and reactions to various effects. It is one of the few facilities of its kind attached to a university botanical garden, and visitors pass it without noticing.
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