A Green World: Cuba's National Botanical Garden

With the passing of time, the Cuban National Botanical Garden has blossomed into an oasis for leisure, education, and exercise. Located beside Parque Lenin about 20 km south of Havana, the Garden aims to show the tropical diversity of Cuba's flora and to promote environmental awareness for the Cuban people and foreign visitors.

With the advice and assistance of Dr. Johannes Bisse of the Friedrich Séller University of Germany, the Garden was conceived with a scientific purpose. That explains why the Garden works with the Biology Faculty of the University of Havana and has a staff which includes PhD's in biological sciences, botany experts, and other researchers. They conduct numerous research projects and maintain a vast specialized library as well as a lab where they are able to preserve and grow nearly extinct plants in vitro.

One place not to be missed is the Garden's herbarium. It is one of the most important on the island with more than 200,000 samples gathered over a period of more than a hundred years. The samples are preserved at low levels of humidity and are free form the potential danger of insects and diseases.

The World of Plants.

Breathing such pure and refreshing air in the middle of so much vegetation is a privilege for all of those visiting this botanical lung of Havana.

Everything is carefully selected and arranged to suit the different geographical areas. Exhibition areas are distributed over more than two thousand square metres of covered sections with three 10 m high pavilions housing around 600 species of plants from 250 genres and 90 families. There are also beautiful outdoor spaces, ponds, and decorative collection