Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Indian Botanical Gardens

  The Indian Botanical Gardens, located in Howrah, India, covers over 273 acres.  It was founded in 1787 by Colonel Robert Kyd, an army officer of the British East India company.  The original purpose of the garden was to grow plants of commercial value for trade.

 

Today, the garden contains over 12,000 trees and shrubs.  There are glass houses, green houses, and conservatories that house a great collection of orchids, bamboo, and palm trees.  Probably the best known feature of the gardens, is The Great Banyan, an enormous banyan tree that's thought to be about 250 years old.  It's also considered to be the largest in the world.  It has a circumferance of 1000 feet, and some 2800 prop roots that cover almost 3 acres.  It looks like a miniature forest!

 

 The garden is open from dawn to dusk.  Admission is 5 Rupees per person. 






10 comments:

  1. Hi...I'm hopping over from the A to Z challenge. Lovely blog...good luck with the challenge!

    Donna L Martin
    www.donasdays.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete
  2. The tangle of dark trees is my favorite picture.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Would you believe that's all part of one tree (The Great Banyan)?

      Delete
  3. what a beautiful place! I love pictures!
    Happy A-Zing!
    Nutschell
    www.thewritingnut.com

    ReplyDelete
  4. I saw a large Banyan tree in Hawaii, and thought it was wonderful. It is exciting to see the largest in the world. I'll have to google it. What a lovely garden.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That tree is really the best thing about the whole place!

      Delete
  5. I wanted to let you all know that I'm having some problems with Blogger. It's very difficult to post, even through draft blogger, so if I'm unable to post, it's not because I'm not participating in the A-Z challenge. It's due to technical difficulties.

    ReplyDelete
  6. That's a sweet looking garden and I am sure more beautiful than mere pictures can show us. It was nice of the Colonel to start such a project. I wonder if he ever thought it would live on as it has?

    ReplyDelete
  7. Hi Sherry! Enjoyed your post. I can't get over the fact that what looks like a group of trees is all part of one tree. How awesome is that?

    I hope your Blogger troubles are solved swiftly.

    Susanne
    PUTTING WORDS DOWN ON PAPER

    ReplyDelete