Meise Botanical Garden officially opened the new Native Flora Garden on Thursday, a living laboratory that pays tribute to local plant diversity, Belga News Agency reports.
The garden, which was festively inaugurated by Flemish Minister-President Matthias Diependaele (N-VA), brings together more than 600 native plant species and is set to become a place where research, nature conservation, public education and public engagement reinforce one another.
The Native Flora Garden is a living catalogue of Belgian flora and is inspired by 22 natural landscapes from the country. Visitors can stroll through habitats ranging from coastal dunes and salt marshes to heathland, fens, grasslands and forests. According to the Botanical Garden, the collection represents around a fifth of all plant species found in the wild in Belgium.
Particular attention is paid to endangered species. In total, 175 of the planted species feature on the regional red lists of Flanders and/or Wallonia. The garden includes rare ecosystems such as blue grasslands, wet heathland and zinc flora, which are home to various endangered and vulnerable plant species. Visitors can identify these vulnerable species by special red labels.
Credit: Lander Loeckx
The new garden is located close to the Botanical Garden's seed bank, where seeds of endangered native species have been collected and preserved since the 1980s. 75% of the species on the Flemish Red List have now been secured.
This collection is used, amongst other things, for nature restoration projects and the reintroduction of extinct plant species. A similar goal is being pursued for the Walloon Red List, in collaboration with Natagora, by 2030.
The Native Flora Garden forms part of the renovated Pachthof site, where a new restaurant, a roof garden and a bridge connecting to the seed bank have also been constructed. The project fits within the masterplan of the Meise Botanical Garden, which positions itself as a centre for biodiversity research, nature conservation and recreation.
Last year, according to the Flemish government, the Botanical Garden welcomed more than 250,000 visitors.
