The Arboretum de La Roche-Guyon (12 hectares), also known as the Arboretum de La Roche, is an arboretum managed by the Office national des forêts (ONF). It is located in the regional forest (309 hectares) north of La Roche-Guyon, Val-d'Oise, Île-de-France, France, and open daily without charge.
An arboretum in a general sense is a botanical collection composed exclusively of trees. More commonly a modern arboretum is a botanical garden containing living collections of woody plants and is intended at least in part for scientific study.
La Roche-Guyon is a commune in the Val-d'Oise department in Île-de-France in northern France. It is located in the reigonal national park of Vexin.
Val-d'Oise is a French department, created in 1968 after the split of the Seine-et-Oise department and located in the Île-de-France region. In local slang, it is known as "quatre-vingt quinze" or "neuf cinq". It gets its name from the Oise River, a major tributary of the Seine, which crosses the region after having started in Belgium and flowed through north-eastern France. Charles de Gaulle Airport, France's main international airport is partially located in Roissy-en-France, a commune of Val d'Oise.
The arboretum was created in 1990 by the ONF. It symbolizes the geography of Île-de-France, and contains 1821 trees reflecting the region's municipalities. Each of region's départements is represented by a mass of trees: maples for the Essonne; limes and laurels for the Hauts-de-Seine; oak, dogwood, eucalyptus, blackberry, holly, and buckthorn for the Seine-et-Marne; beech for Yvelines, and so forth. Rivers are represented by strips of lawn.
Acer is a genus of trees and shrubs commonly known as maple. The genus is placed in the family Sapindaceae. There are approximately 128 species, most of which are native to Asia, with a number also appearing in Europe, northern Africa, and North America. Only one species, Acer laurinum, extends to the Southern Hemisphere. The type species of the genus is the sycamore maple, Acer pseudoplatanus, the most common maple species in Europe. The maples have easily recognizable palmate leaves and distinctive winged fruits. The closest relatives of the maples are the horse chestnuts.
Essonne is a French department in the region of Île-de-France. It is named after the Essonne River.
Hauts-de-Seine is a department of France. It is part of the Métropole du Grand Paris and of the Île-de-France region, and covers the western inner suburbs of Paris. It is small and densely populated and contains the modern office, theatre, and shopping complex known as La Défense.
