Botanical Garden of Rio de Janeiro

Rio de Janeiro Botanical Garden can be considered an ecological sanctuary and It is one of the ten most important in the world. It houses the rarest species of plants of Braziliam flora and other countries.

Wonderful Green Gardens, Lakes and Palm Tree Alleys

In an area of 137 hectares, where can still be found some remanants of the Atlantic Forest, Rio de Janeiro Botanical Garden is seen as one of the most important botanical gardens in the world and has therefore been an object of the interest of researchers and visitors in general.

To visit some sections of the grounds is to wonder through a Rio of another dimension with its centenarian trees, species such as pau-brasil (brazilwood), aracá-amarelo (yellow guava), pau-mulato (mulatto calycophillum), vitória-régia (victoria regio), flamboyant, whose rare colors and exuberant tropical foliage obliterate all the bustle of the big city.

Birdwatching at Botanical Garden

Birdwatching clubs have elected Rio de Janeiro Botanical Garden as one of their favorite places. There are birds of varied sizes, families and species, nearly all of them ídentified by professor Alberto Ruschi whose classifications have been updated by other observers and researchers.

Periquitos (parakeets), tucanos (toucans), caturritas (monk parakeet), sairas (species of blackbird), sanhaços (species of tanager), tíés (species of tanager), owls, swallows, rolinhas (species of dove), tico-ticos (crowrs sparrow), "cambaxirras", bem-te-vi (tyrant flycatcher) must have contributed to moments of inspiration for the poet and composer António Carlos Jobim (Tom Jobim), one of the Garden's most celebrated habitues. Other famous personalities, as well as kings, emperors, princes, presidents and scientists can also be counted among visitors.

Historical building and ruins amongst the green

Besides the alleys and sections, there are buildings to visit such as the old Engenho de Nossa Senhora, Casa dos Pilões, the greenhouse for insectivorous piants, and the collection of orchids and bromeliads as well as the portal of the Real Academia de Belas Artes (Fine Arts Royal Academy) designed by French architect Grandjean de Montigny, that arrived in Rio in 1816, and one of the professors and founders of Fine Arts Royal Academy.

History and development of The Royal Botanical Garden, founded in 1808

In 2008 the City of Rio de Janeiro celebrates two hundred years of the arrival of the Portuguese Roya! Family in Brazil, as well as two hundred years of the foundation of Jardim da Aclimatação (Aclimation Garden) on 13 June 1808.

D. João VI called it Aclimation Garden because it was meant to acclimate herbs and spices from the West Indies. Soon the garden was renamed, first as Real Horto (Royal Nursery), and after being expanded as Real Jardim Botânico (Royal Botanical Garden).

The first aclimation experiment in the then Royal Nursery was a tea plantation, which brought the first Chinese immigrants to Brazil. At the time the access to the Nursery and the consumption of tea in Rio were both privileges exclusive to the Royal Family.

It was only after the independence of Brazil in 1822, under emperor D. Pedro l, that the Royal Botanical Garden was open to the public. And then its director, Frei Leandro do Sacramento, introduced important changes: reorganization of the flora with increase in cultivated areas, construction of an artificial lake, Lago Frei Leandro (Frei Leandro Lake), and introduction of new species through exchanges with the Cambridge Botanical Garden in England.

References:

• Riotur brochures | City of Rio de Janeiro Tourism Authority
• Many books about the history and iconography of Rio de Janeiro City

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