The Botanical Garden of the University of Banja Luka

Abstract

The "University City" complex was founded in year 2004 comprising the Botanical Garden and the Park, both of 28.5 ha total area. The Park facilities occupy 21 ha and the Botanical Garden covers 5.3 ha. Both are managed by the Genetic Resources Institute, of the University of Banja Luka. University City complex consists of 28 facilities; two of them are of cultural and historical value. There are 1503 woody plants in the park, of which 1386 are trees and 117 shrubs. A total of 77 species (25 conifers and 52 deciduous) were noted. There are 212 woody plants which have been estimated as valuable. Particularly important and valuable ones, actually, the real monuments of nature are: narrow-leafed ash, common oak, a group of swamp cypress, a group of elm trees, an avenue of plane trees and also individual specimens of rare or important species such as Picea omorika (Pančić) Purk. or Abies grandis (Douglas ex D.Don) Lindley [4]. Having once being part of the military polygon, the area should have been reconstructed and revitalized during the preparation for planting [1]. The Botanical garden facilities are divided into three sections. In one section, the setting up of botanical collections has begun and alpines were designed. In the arboretum collection, there are primarily going to be represented autochthonous woody species with their herbaceous companions from corresponding phytocenoses in the ground floor vegetation. In the third section, greenhouses were designed and main building was built.