Innsbruck University Botanic Garden

The Botanical Garden of the University of Innsbruck covers two hectares in the Hötting district. It sits on Sternwartestraße in Innsbruck, Austria, and has been open to the public without charge every day. The garden grew from an earlier site around 1911 and was reshaped between 1948 and 1965. Its alpine rock garden was rebuilt between 1987 and 1990 along modern systematic lines. The first greenhouse dates to 1909, and three more were added between 1977 and 1979. A succulent house followed in 1993, and a sixth greenhouse for container plants opened in 1997. The garden now holds more than five thousand plant species arranged in major sections. The alpinum covers over two thousand square metres and contains more than one thousand alpine plants from every non-tropical mountain region. It includes fern areas, a moor, and four ponds. The arboretum displays woody plants such as gymnosperms, angiosperms, and perennials. Three cactus houses shelter about five hundred cactus species and related succulents. Visitors find a fragrance and touch garden built in 1999, the first in Austria, where every plant is labelled in Braille. A medicinal, poisonous, and spice garden shows over three hundred plants grouped by their active compounds. The systematic garden covers one thousand square metres and was rebuilt in 1993. A tall tropical greenhouse shelters flowering and useful tropical plants under a twelve-metre roof.