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Plant Science Subject Guide — Botanical Gardens

Botanical Garden Introduction

Botanical gardens exist around the world to collect, preserve, protect and document plants of specific ecologies or regions. They are often associated with higher learning or other scientific research organizations and have taxonomic, cultural and/or educational roles regarding those plants. Botanical gardens generally offer botanical research resources to scientists, collectors, and students. 

Global access to the International Association of Botanic Gardens is available through the link below. It can be searched by region, by plant,by three and by garden. Individual botanical gardens can often also be searched online. Many have catalogs of their collections available either in print or online.

Plants of the World Online

The Plants of the World Online database is a collaborative effort from Kew Gardens and its partners. It contains digitized data of world flora gathered over 250 of botanical exploration. The entries contain descriptions, images geographical distribution, synonyms, a bibliography for that genus/species, and sources of the information given. Search under the synonyms as well as the initial name used.