After reconstruction, the Ashgabat Botanical garden at The Turkmen agricultural University named after S. A. Niyazov has reopened its doors to visitors, the state publishing service of Turkmenistan reports.
The opening is timed to the day of the city of Ashgabat, which is celebrated on May 25. The oldest Park of the capital, as before, will remain the center of scientific and practical introduction and acclimatization of plants, as well as a favorite place for walking citizens.
The Ashgabat Botanical garden is compactly located on a small territory adjacent to the agricultural University. 12 hectares is occupied by an arboretum representing tree species, where individual specimens of the world's flora were planted in the period from 1902 to 1981. Among the exotic plants-the oldest in Ashgabat thuja and pine tree, there is a birch and even a relict Ginkgo-biloba, which is called a living fossil. This tree was a single specimen a few years ago, and now it is part of a living collection - a whole family of this tree miracle, because the garden staff in arid conditions were able to vegetative propagate Ginkgo.
During the modernization, the internal buildings were updated, the bench-arbor-path infrastructure was re-designed, and the pool was lined with water plants. The landings became orderly and permeable to the sun. And the plantings themselves appeared as visual cultural plots, where the "green" residents are grouped by place of origin and species, systematized, provided with accompanying signs, where their Latin and scientific names are indicated.
Eight geographical areas have been redeveloped and include plants from the climatic territories of Eurasia and the Americas. The garden has more flower crops, three houses with pigeons, and a new fence with climbing roses.
Much work has been done in greenhouses for tropical and subtropical species. At the moment, here you can watch the flowering of monster. All succulent plants are gathered together for easy observation of related plants.
After a General inventory of the existing collection, it was found that the most richly represented heat-loving exotics. Only figs here are collected up to ten species of aloe is of the order of 14 species. The pride of the garden is the fruiting dwarf banana, carica papaya, as well as various Canary palms and poinsettias in excellent condition, which bloom in January. Last year, for the first time in the conditions of Ashgabat, an avocado plant was grown, which now reaches a height of one meter.
Head of the Department of forestry and forest Park management of the agro ecological faculty of TAU Akmurat ATAMURADOV:
It seems that the botanic garden "rejuvenated", although it has already passed 90 years since its opening in 1929. Subsequently, the basis for expanding the register of plants used in gardening, horticulture, and pharmaceuticals was formed here. And now this scientific work has found a new breath in the light of the country's goal to strengthen scientific and University cooperation, develop student projects and research. It should be emphasized that botanic garden is included in the structure of the agricultural University not by chance, because on the territory of these two sites 150 years ago, the first research on the adaptation of imported plants to a hot climate began. By now, the renovation of the garden has been completed, but the reconstruction in scientific terms will continue as necessary, depending on how the plants will get used to the new routine, neighborhood, care. In the future, it is planned to introduce advanced nanotechnology practices, as well as transfer analytical work to digital format.
