Treborth Botanic Garden
Treborth Botanic Garden (Welsh: Gardd Fotaneg Treborth), is a botanic garden in Gwynedd, Wales, close to the city of Bangor. It is owned by Bangor University, and is used in teaching for University students, local schools and community groups. In recent years, Treborth Botanic Garden has come under threat of closure by Bangor University due to high maintenance costs, but this threat has been largely countered by the Friends of Treborth Botanic Garden, a volunteer group with charitable status that helps in the day-to-day running of the Garden, and the Students for Treborth Action Group (STAG), a Bangor University Student's Union society formed to safeguard the Garden for use by the students and population of Bangor.
History of the Garden
The current site was originally developed as a Victorian tourist destination, Britannia Park, by the Chester and Holyhead Railway Company in the 1840s. The grounds were designed by Sir Joseph Paxton, and features of his design can be see today, such as the lime avenue. However, due to a funding crisis the site was abandoned and reverted to pasture and woodland. Funding crises were to become a feature of the sites subsequent history.
In 1960, the then University College of North Wales (now Bangor University) bought the land with the aim of developing it into a collection of plants for the University's Department of Botany. When the Department of Botany closed, the Garden continued to be used by other departments within the University for teaching, in particular for environmental courses.
Treborth Botanic Garden is twinned with Katse Alpine Botanic Garden in Lesotho.
Facilities and Collections
Treborth Botanic Garden has six glasshouses and a teaching lab with associated offices for the use of the curator and the volunteers in the main building complex. The Temperate Glasshouse features cacti, succulents, South African native plants and Canary Island native plants. The Tropical Glasshouse houses a variety of plants from the tropics including banana cultivars. The Orchid House and Bubble House contain the collections of orchids and carnivorous plants. Other glasshouses are used to house tender species from temperate zones, Welsh native flora, and for propagation and storage. The teaching lab doubles as a welcome area for visitors. A car park is situated outside the main building complex. Away from the main buildings, Treborth features the largest rhizotron in Europe (currently not in use for scientific research), a pigeon loft and meteorological recording equipment in a research compound which is off limits to members of the public. The garden has extensive outdoor grounds which extend all the way down to the shore of the Menai Strait.