HISTORY and PRESENT ORGANIZATION [back to main page]

Introduction and history:

The Polish Academy of Sciences is the leading governmental institution for the organisation of scientific research in Poland, which is carried on in 84 research units - institutes, centres, independent departments or stations. One of them is the Botanical Garden, located in Warsaw. There are 7 divisions for all areas of science in the Polish Academy and Botanical Garden is a member of Division V for Agricultural, Forestry and Veterinary Sciences.

Botanical Garden was established in 1974 as an independent research unit of the Academy of Sciences but till that time was acting from 1970 as the Department for Crop Germplasm Conservation of the Institute of Plant Genetics.

In the years 1970 - 1977 all laboratories and collections were located in Skierniewice (ca. 70 km south - west from Warsaw).

In the years 1977 - 1980 the first new laboratories were opened in Powsin - a suburban area of Warsaw City. Also the first piece of land - 40 hectares was owned by the Polish Academy of Sciences for botanical garden displays, collections and experimental plots. The garden was located in the southern border of city area (about 23 km from Warsaw downtown), close to the town Konstancin-Jeziorna on arable land with small parts of natural forest in the northern part, where garden is surrounded with the Nature Reserve "Kabacki Forest" and Recreation Park Powsin.

The land is flat, however there are 3 ravines on the slops. In the future plans the area of the botanical garden could be extended up to 180 hectares.

In the years 1977 - 1980 the first trees and shrubs were planted in section of arboretum. Other displays and collections were organised in the years 1980 - 1989 on the area ca. 25 hectares. On May 12th 1990 botanical garden was opened for public visitors.

The years 1990 - 1995 were devoted to development of new laboratories, especially for biotechnology, molecular biology and seed biology with seed bank for natural flora and crop plants. In 1995 the Education Centre for Nature and Ecology was opened.

In last 6 years new ornamental gardens were opened for public visitors - a big perennial garden, bulb garden and rose garden. Presently new modern greenhouses (1.300 m2) for tropical, subtropical and desert plants are under construction.

In the year 2003 a big rock garden devoted to the Polish mountainous plants was opened.

ORGANISATION:

Botanical Garden of the Polish Academy of Sciences is the a special institution of rather broad activity. From on side is the research institution on plants in the areas of botany, plant physiology and biochemistry, genetics, molecular biology, biotechnology, ecology and horticultural sciences. On the other hand garden serves to the public as an institution for popularisation of the knowledge about plants, education centre and recreation place.

In 1997 the Presidium of the Polish Academy of Sciences has changed the name and statue of the unit to: Botanical Garden - Centre for Biological Diversity Conservation. This new name seems to be better comprising such broad and diverse activities. There are 5 research departments in the structure of garden and the centre:

• Department for Conservation and Evaluation of Plant Diversity (head: Assoc.Prof. Dr. Jerzy Puchalski)
• Department of Plant Biotechnology (head: Prof. Dr. Jan Rybczynski)
• Department of Applied Ecology (head: Dr. Wojciech Dmuchowski)
• Department of the Biodiversity Conservation of Upper Silesia (head: Assoc.Prof. Dr. Wieslaw Wloch)

(This department is located out of Warsaw, presently in Raciborz in Upper Silesia Region (south-west Poland) and its main task is to organise the new Silesian Botanical Garden near Katowice.)

There are 111 people employed in the Botanical Garden, 38 in research departments, 34 in garden departments and 39 in administration and technical services.

The staff is following:
• Professors and associate professors - 5
• Assistant professors - 12
• Research specialists - 16
• Ph.D. students - 5
• Curators and gardeners - 34
• Education officers - 2
• Librarian - 2

The founder and a first director of the Botanical Garden was Assoc.Prof. Dr. Boguslaw Molski, who passed away on March 26, 1989. From that time till today the director of the Garden is Assoc.Prof. Dr. Jerzy Puchalski. The chairman of the Board of Trustees (Scientific Council) were Prof. Dr. Szczepan A. Pieniazek (1974-1990) and Prof. Dr. Emil Nalborczyk (1990 - 2002).

[Main Page] [Plan of the Garden] [Plant Shopping Centre ] [Foundation "Homo et Planta"] [History of the Garden] [Research and Collections] [Plant Collections] [Teaching of University Students ] [Nature and Ecology Education Centre] [Research Activity ] [What's new] [Cultural Activity]
[Pomology Collections] [Vegetable Collections] [Medicinal and Aromatic Plant Collections] [Polish Flora Collection] [Dendrology Collection] [Sub - and Tropical Plant Collections ] [Perennials] [Irises and Bulb Plant Collection] [Roses Collection] [Index of taxa] [Index seminum] [Summary of Garden Collection] [Scientific Board] [Publishing] [List of Publications] [Scientific Degrees] [National Conferences] [International Conferences] [Department of the Evaluation and Plant Bio-diversity Conservation ] [Department of Botanical and Horticultural Collections ] [Department of Applied Ecology ] [Department of Biotechnology ] [Department of the Biological Diversity Conservation of the High Silesia ]