Missouri Botanical Garden

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Missouri Botanical Garden
Missouri Botanical Garden
Type Botanical garden
Location St. Louis, Missouri, U.S.
Coordinates 38°36′45″N90°15′35″W / 38.61250°N 90.25972°W / 38.61250; -90.25972
Opened1859
Website www.missouribotanicalgarden.org
Missouri Botanical Garden
ArchitectMultiple
Architectural styleLate Victorian
NRHP reference No. 71001065 [1]
Significant dates
Added to NRHPNovember 19, 1971
Designated NHLDDecember 8, 1976 [2]

The Missouri Botanical Garden is a botanical garden located at 4344 Shaw Boulevard in St. Louis, Missouri. It is also known informally as Shaw's Garden for founder and philanthropist Henry Shaw. Its herbarium, with more than 7.5 million specimens, [3] is the second largest in North America, behind that of the New York Botanical Garden. Its Peter H. Raven Library contains 85% coverage of all literature ever published on systematic botany and plant taxonomy. [4] The Index Herbariorum code assigned to the herbarium is MO [5] and it is used when citing housed specimens.

Contents

History

The Missouri Botanical Garden began development by 1850 and was created by Henry Shaw. Shaw, a British immigrant, moved to St. Louis in 1819. The garden was developed on land that previously belonged to Shaw, and began construction in 1855. The garden officially opened in 1859. It had informally been referred to as Shaw's Garden for a number of years since its opening. Shaw later died in 1889 and donated the conservatory to the city. [6]

In 1959, the conservatory began construction on the Climatron. The Climatron is a Geodesic greenhouse that is intended to simulate the climate of a rainforest. The greenhouse replaced the former Palm House, which was demolished to build it. It opened in 1960 as one of the first Geodesic-domed greenhouses. [7] The garden was added to the National Register of Historic Places on November 19, 1971 and was designated a National Historic Landmark on December 8, 1976. [2]

The Climatron greenhouse at the Missouri Botanical Garden simulates the climate of a rainforest for conservational and educational purposes. Climatron, Missouri Botanical Gardens.jpg
The Climatron greenhouse at the Missouri Botanical Garden simulates the climate of a rainforest for conservational and educational purposes.

In 2024, the Tower Grove House was added to the Underground Railroad Network to Freedom. Records show that in 1855, four people enslaved by Shaw escaped the house and crossed the Mississippi River with help from Mary Meachum. A woman, Esther, and her three children were captured immediately after crossing. Shaw placed a bounty on Jim Kennerly, who had escaped. [8]

Peter H. Raven Library

Stereoscopic view of statuary and flowers at Shaw's Garden by Truman Ward Ingersoll Flowers and statuary, Shaw's Garden, St. Louis, by Ingersoll, T. W. (Truman Ward), 1862-1922.png
Stereoscopic view of statuary and flowers at Shaw's Garden by Truman Ward Ingersoll

Founded by Henry Shaw with the Missouri Botanical Garden in 1859, the Peter H. Raven Library general collection contains more than 160,300 items of plant taxonomic literature. [9]

CollectionPeriodDonorsSizeRef.
Sturtevant Pre-Linnaean1474 – 1753 Edward Lewis Sturtevant 1,000 [9]
Linnaean Carl Linnaeus 900
Post-1753 Rare BookPost-1753 Charles Darwin, George Engelmann 3,000
Folio1,000
Steere William C. Steere 3,000
The Kresko Victorian Garden at the Missouri Botanical Garden, a highly manicured garden. Kresko Victorian Garden at the Missouri Botanical Garden.jpg
The Kresko Victorian Garden at the Missouri Botanical Garden, a highly manicured garden.

Cultural festivals

The garden is a place for many annual cultural festivals, such as the Japanese Festival and the Chinese Culture Days by the St. Louis Chinese Culture Days Committee. [10] During this time, there are showcases of the culture's botanics as well as cultural arts, crafts, music and food. The Japanese Festival features sumo wrestling, taiko drumming, koma-mawashi top spinning, and kimono fashion shows. The garden is known for its bonsai growing, which can be seen all year round but is highlighted during the multiple Asian festivals.

Tower Grove House seen here behind a hedge maze Missouri Botanical Garden.jpg
Tower Grove House seen here behind a hedge maze

Gardens

NameOpenedNotesRef.
Tower Grove House1849Designed by George I. Barnett in the Italianate style [11]
Victory of Science over Ignorance1859Marble statue by Carlo Nicoli, a copy of the original
Linnean House1882Originally Shaw's orangery, in the late 1930s converted to house mostly camellias
Gladney Rose Garden1915Circular rose garden with arbors
Climatron and Reflecting Pools1960Designed by architect and engineer Thomas C. Howard; lowland rain forest with approximately 1500 plants
English Woodland Garden1976 Aconite, azaleas, bluebells, dogwoods, hosta, trillium, and others beneath the tree canopy
Seiwa-en Japanese Garden1977Wet strolling garden with lawns and path set around a 4-acre (1.6 ha) central lake, designed by Koichi Kawana; the largest Japanese Garden in North America
Grigg Nanjing Friendship Chinese Garden1995Designed by architect Yong Pan; features (gifts from sister city Nanjing) a moon gate, lotus gate, pavilion, and Chinese scholar's rocks from Lake Tai
Blanke Boxwood Garden1996Walled parterre with a fine boxwood collection
Strassenfest German Garden2000Flora native to Germany and Central Europe and a bust of botanist and Henry Shaw's scientific advisor George Engelmann
Biblical garden Date palm, pomegranate, fig and olive trees, caper, mint, citron and other plants mentioned in the Bible

Additional projects

Butterfly House

Missouri Botanical Garden also operates the Sophia M. Sachs Butterfly House in Chesterfield. The Butterfly House includes an 8,000-square-foot (740 m2) indoor butterfly conservatory as well as an outdoor butterfly garden.

EarthWays Center

The EarthWays Center is a group at the Missouri Botanical Garden that provides resources on and educates the public about green practices, renewable energy, energy efficiency, and other sustainability matters. [12]

Shaw Nature Reserve

The Shaw Nature Reserve was started by the Missouri Botanical Garden in 1925 as a place to store plants away from the pollution of the city. The air in St. Louis later cleared up, and the reserve has continued to be open to the public for enjoyment, research, and education ever since. The 2,400-acre (9.7 km2) reserve is located in Gray Summit, Missouri, 35 miles (56 km) away from the city. [13]

The Plant List

The Plant List is an Internet encyclopedia project to compile a comprehensive list of botanical nomenclature, created by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and the Missouri Botanical Garden. [14] The Plant List has 1,040,426 scientific plant names of species rank, of which 298,900 are accepted species names. In addition, the list has 620 plant families and 16,167 plant genera. [15]

Living Earth Collaborative

In September 2017 the Missouri Botanical Garden teamed up with the St. Louis Zoo and Washington University in St. Louis in a conservation effort known as the Living Earth Collaborative. [16] The collaborative, run by Washington University scientist Jonathan Losos, seeks to promote further understanding of the ways humans can help to preserve the varied natural environments that allow plants, animals and microbes to survive and thrive. [17]

Henry Shaw Medal

The Henry Shaw Medal has been awarded since 1893. It honors those who have made a significant contribution to the Missouri Botanical Garden, botanical research, horticulture, conservation, or the museum community.

Recipients:

Publications

See also

References

  1. ↑ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places . National Park Service. January 23, 2007.
  2. 1 2 "Missouri Botanical Garden". National Historic Landmark summary listing. National Park Service. Archived from the original on March 1, 2009. Retrieved June 28, 2008.
  3. ↑ "Herbarium". Missouri Botanical Garden. Retrieved September 19, 2025.
  4. ↑ Missouri Botanical Garden (2006). Library Collection Management Policy. pp. 1–2.
  5. ↑ "Index Herbariorum". Steere Herbarium, New York Botanical Garden. Retrieved November 27, 2021.
  6. ↑ "NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES INVENTORY -- NOMINATION FORM". National Park Service. p. 3.
  7. ↑ "Shaw's Seeking Cover for Palms". St. Louis Globe-Democrat. October 10, 1959. p. 5. Retrieved October 15, 2025.
  8. ↑ Neman, Daniel (February 15, 2024). "Three St. Louis-area sites added to Underground Railroad program". STLtoday.com. Retrieved February 15, 2024.
  9. 1 2 Missouri Botanical Garden (2025). "Collections". Missouri Botanical Garden. Retrieved March 17, 2025.
  10. ↑ "ฝาก 20 รับ 200 ถอนไม่อั้น". Archived from the original on May 9, 2022. Retrieved July 13, 2022.
  11. ↑ "Gardens & Conservatories". www.missouribotanicalgarden.org. Retrieved October 15, 2025.
  12. ↑ "Conservation in Action: the EarthWays Center". Missouribotanicalgarden.org. Archived from the original on April 26, 2013. Retrieved April 23, 2013.
  13. ↑ "Shaw Nature Reserve". Shawnature.org. Retrieved April 23, 2013.
  14. ↑ "Discovery News: World's Largest Plants Database Assembled". News.discovery.com. December 29, 2010. Archived from the original on July 13, 2012. Retrieved April 23, 2013.
  15. ↑ CBC: US, British scientists draw up comprehensive list of world's known land plants [ dead link ]
  16. ↑ Jost, Ashley (September 6, 2017). "Washington U., St. Louis Zoo and Missouri Botanical Garden team up to tackle conservation". stltoday.com. Retrieved August 2, 2019.[ verification needed ]
  17. ↑ "Our Mission". Living Earth Collaborative. September 1, 2017. Retrieved August 2, 2019.[ verification needed ]
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