Botanical Garden

Zürich, Switzerland, Switzerland

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The Botanical Garden of the University of Zurich is a large urban garden and research facility in the Weinegg/Seefeld area of Zurich, laid out on about 5.3 hectares along Zollikerstrasse and opened in the 1970s as the “new” garden replacing the older central-city site at Schanzengraben. It is managed by the university’s Institute of Systematic and Evolutionary Botany and combines functions of scientific collection, teaching resource, conservation site for threatened species, and public green space for quiet recreation. The garden cultivates roughly 7,000–8,000 plant species from a wide range of global climate zones, arranged in themed outdoor biotopes with an arboretum, meadow areas, and a central pond that create varied microhabitats and clear didactic structure for visitors. Its most distinctive feature is a set of three domed glasshouses with a futuristic appearance, each dedicated to a different tropical climate type such as humid rainforest or drier tropical regions, allowing year-round display of diverse, often rare, tropical and subtropical plants. Entry to the garden is free, opening hours are extended on weekdays and slightly shorter on weekends depending on the season, and overall it serves as both a systematic representation of world flora and a calm, accessible oasis within Switzerland’s largest city.