BOTANICAL GARDEN-INSTITUTE,
FAR EAST BRANCH, RUSSIAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCES
Expositional
and collection sites of Laboratory for Introduction of tree species
Blooming
Garden Corners
The
Rose—the most beautiful Queen of Flowers
Garden
under Glass Roof
Collection
of Plants of Russian Far Eastern flora
Ecological
Path
The discovery
and study by S.P. Krasheninnikov, K. I. Maximovich and V. L. Komarov, leading
Russian botanic research figures, of Russia’s rich and unique flora and
vegetation in the nation’s Far East, particularly its southern part, a
section of its ancient East Asia floristic region, and urgent problems
of exploration and development of the Russian Far East caused the necessity
to create a science center for experimental study of Far Eastern and other
plants in stationary conditions. Hence, already before the 1917 Russian
Revolution, a Botanical Garden under the South Ussuri Branch of the Russian
Geographic Society was organized in Nikolsk-Ussuriisk. The initiator was
Academician (later President of the USSR Academy of Sciences) V. L. Komarov,
and the leading researcher E.N. Klobukova-Alissova, authors of the first
discriminators of plants growing in the Russian Far East. However, the
Garden did not last long.
In the
mid-nineteen twenties, Professor V. M. Savich, then its director, tried
to create a Botanical Garden in the area of Station Sadgorod near Vladivostok.
However, organized under the aegis of the Russian Society for the Study
of Amur Region, it also proved short-lived.
After
the end of World War Two, it was deemed necessary to set up botanical gardens
all over the country under the USSR Academy of Sciences. At that very time,
the Academy began to organize its Head Botanical Garden in Moscow and Central
Siberian Botanical Garden in Novosibirsk. At the same time, the Far East
Base, USSR Academy of Sciences, and the local authorities in Primorye proposed
the creation of an academic botanical garden in Vladivostok, and the Bureau
(governing body) of the Council of Branches and Bases, USSR Academy of
Sciences, endorsed the project in April 1946. Leading Russian Far Eastern
foresters Professor (later Corresponding Member, USSR Academy of Sciences)
B. P. Kolesnikov and Professor N. E. Kabanov selected a plot 176 hectares
in area (present area is 170 ha) with well-preserved black spruce—broad-leaved
and larchwood forests. In 1948, the Vladivostok City Council ruled to secure
this plot for future construction of the new Garden, and in February 1949
the USSR Council of Ministers ruled to allocate the area to the Far East
Base, USSR Academy of Science. For a long time, the Garden staff was not
complete, and the position of Manager was vacant. A. Z. Kovalenko, Far
East Base researcher, was part-time acting director, episodically superseded
by researchers of the Academy’s Far Eastern Base (Head of Sector N. E.
Kabanov), under which the Garden functioned till 1962. In 1949, M. A. Skripka
became the Garden’s director and only researcher to be officially endorsed
in capacity of director in 1950. In 1959, the Garden already had six staff
members. However, already from that period the research theme “Introduction
into the Culture of Local and Foreign Useful Plants in Conditions of Southern
Primorye” was being developed to include three sections. In 1952-1958 the
Garden Director was V. G. Sinegub, under whom the Head Botanical Garden,
USSR Academy of Sciences, provided major assistance in organizing research.
In fact, M. A. Skripka used the results of five years’ work to publish
her first monograph titled “Wild Perennial Grassy Plants of the South of
the Russian Far East for Park Construction.
Yet in the 1950s, Vladivostok Botanical Garden was still not a genuine
research institution. In 1954, it staffed eleven persons, including its
director and three researchers. Since there were no specialists with degrees,
A. D. Vorobiov, formally not a staff member, was placed in charge of the
topic “ Primary Introduction of Local and Testing of Foreign Useful
Plants” Management was frequently replaced: in 1958, P. V. Kusina was appointed
acting director. E. N. Litvintsev was director from 1960 to 1963, and A.
A. Popov from 1963 to 1964. During that period, the Garden launched its
research on “Introduction and Acclimatization of Plants”, and gave major
attention to developing the scientific foundations of landscaping in urban
and rural areas of the Russian Far East and to promising farming crops
In 1966, L. N. Blizniuk, the first employee with degree of candidate of
science, was invited to be Botanical Garden director. At that time, the
Garden was involved in two research projects connected with the study of
local and introduced flora. Several researchers were sent to take regular
and correspondence post-graduate courses. Subsequently in 1970, in connection
with the organization of the Far East Science Center, USSR Academy of Sciences,
the Botanical Garden received the status of an independent research institution,
and V. P. Kuprianov was appointed director. In 1971, the Garden already
staffed six candidates of science, and this allowed to organize two research
laboratories. In 1974, A. F. Zhuravkov, Cand. Sci. (Agriculture), was appointed
Director to remain in that capacity till 1996. A new laboratory building
was commissioned in 1978, and two new greenhouses were built later, followed
by reconstruction of a hothouse. Also, the Garden premises were surrounded
by safety fencing, and construction of a nearby road network was started.
In 1988, the Garden organized its own Academic Council, and in 1990 the
Presidium of the USSR Academy of Sciences granted it the status of a research
institution. V. A. Nedoluzhko, D. Sci. (Biology) is Garden Director since
1996.
At present,
the Garden-Institute is the only fully botanical research institute in
the Russian Far East, conducting scientific research in three major directions:
(1) biological fundamentals
of plant introduction;
(2) protection of the gene
pool of Russian Far Eastern flora; and
(3) man-made changes
in plant kingdom.
Moreover,
the Garden’s major task is to spread scientific knowledge in respective
branches of science and to educate the general public ecologically.
The Botanical
Garden staffs nearly ninety people, and half of them are assigned to research
units. The Garden has four laboratories: for introduction of tree plants,
for introduction and selection of decorative flower plants (with hothouse),
for flora of the Russian Far East (with herbarium), and for monitoring
of vegetation cover. In 1997, the Garden organized a botanical-ecological
museum. To improve public enlightenment, an educational “Garden Center”
is also being organized. The Garden staffs twenty-four researchers,
including two doctors and twelve candidates of science. Its current academic
council includes fifteen researchers (doctors and candidates of science).
Regular scientific conferences are held. Every year, Garden researchers
publish papers, monographs and collected articles of printed works, and
publication of series of transactions has started since 1998. International
cooperation is developing through exchange of plant seeds and spores (Index
Seminum) and through membership in Botanic Garden Conservation International
and other organizations.
The Garden
boasts collections and expositions of 3,500 plant species varieties and
forms from all regions of the globe. Over the years, many hundred plant
species, varieties and forms have passed introduction tests to be recommended
for use in the south of the Russian Far East. Techniques and methods have
been developed for replicating and growing useful introduction plants,
and methods proposed for conserving rare and disappearing Far Eastern flora
species by introducing them into culture, including methods of reintroduction,
introduction into park construction, preservation in cold climate, creation
of hybrid collections, etc. Local trees and shrubs have been studied taxonomically,
representatives of anemone subtribes from the crowfoot family monographically,
and Far Eastern ferns biologically and ecologically. The priority of herbaceous
life forms for Angiosperm plants has been comprehensively grounded. Selection
has resulted in novel and promising varieties of decorative flower plants
adapted to monsoon climate. Admissible recreational loads for various types
of vegetation have been determined, and monographs written on oak forests
of the Russian Far East.
Every
year, thousands of excursionists visit the Garden, whose researchers also
teach at local universities, junior colleges, schools, ecological camps
and societies.
The Garden
provides scientific guidance in establishing the Sakhalin and Amur botanic
gardens operating under the Far East Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences.
It closely cooperates with related institutions, e.g. with Alpine Taiga
Station, Far East Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, the first academic
institution in the region, organized way back in 1932, and one owning its
own oldest arboretum, and with arboretums of the Far Eastern Forestry Research
Institute in Khabarovsk and Dolinsk, Sakhalin Region, as well as with other
institutions boasting live plant collections.
V. NEDOLUZHKO, D. Sc.
(Biology), Director, Botanical Garden-Institute,
Far East Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences.
