The Best Botanic Gardens with Research Collections
Some botanic gardens are essentially display gardens for the public; others combine public display with major scientific research, herbarium and seedbank infrastructure. The latter are the institutions that drive global botanical knowledge.
Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, UK
50,000 living plants, 7 million herbarium specimens, the Millennium Seed Bank — the largest botanical research institution in the world.
Missouri Botanical Garden, St Louis
The leading American research botanic garden, with the world's largest comprehensive flora collection of Latin America and Madagascar.
Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh
Founded 1670, with 13,000 species, particularly strong on rhododendrons, conifers and Sino-Himalayan flora. The four-garden network includes Logan, Dawyck and Benmore.
New York Botanical Garden, Bronx
Around 1 million plant specimens in the Steere Herbarium; strong active research programmes.
Bogor Botanical Gardens, Indonesia
Founded 1817, the leading Southeast Asian botanic research garden; the type locality for many tropical species.
Royal Botanic Garden Sydney
Founded 1816, with active research on Australian native flora and a particular strength in Wollemi pine conservation.
Berlin-Dahlem Botanic Garden and Museum
The largest botanic garden in Europe by area (43 hectares) and one of the leading German research institutions, with the Botanisches Museum holding around 4 million specimens.
Singapore Botanic Gardens
UNESCO World Heritage. Particularly important for orchid research; the National Orchid Garden's hybridisation programme has produced thousands of named cultivars.
Pamplemousses, Mauritius
Founded 1735, the oldest in the southern hemisphere, with crucial historical archives of plant introductions from across the Indian Ocean.
Conservatoire et Jardin botaniques, Geneva
More than 16,000 species and a herbarium of 6 million specimens — Switzerland's leading botanical research institution.
Explore on the map
All of the gardens mentioned in this article are pinned on the interactive map. Use it to plan a route, group nearby sites into a single trip, or compare gardens by style and season.