The year 1997 saw the rebuilding of the so-called ‘plant system’, now situated in a regular series of flower beds in the middle of the garden. The ‘plant system’ is an example of the systematic division of plants, where plants are placed in flower beds according to their family relationships. The beds host more than 85 families, representing more than 1,500 taxa.
The original garden, which comprised a series of rectangular flowerbeds bordered by concrete curbs in front of the old greenhouses, was based on Takhtajjan’s plant phylogenetic system, based on a comparison of the morphological features of different plants. This system was in use in our country until about the turn of the millennium, after which molecular methods for examining species relatedness became more common. These methods reveal the true genetic relationships between species. In today’s flower beds, the families are based on the system created by the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group (APG) published in the 14th version on the APWeb (Angiosperm Phylogeny Website). Research on these plant relationships is still ongoing.
The area in front of the greenhouses has been dedicated to the ‘plant system’ since the 1920s. Photo: MU Archive, undated.
In the area in front of the greenhouses, four stone fountains designed by the sculptor Jan Šimek were installed in 1997, which were then ceremoniously opened to the public. The four fountains, which are constructed from different types of rock (limestone, slate, sandstone and granite), are called ‘the springs of the Earth’. Originally, there was a fifth fountain made of wood in front of the tallest greenhouse; however, the sands of time took their toll and the wooden structure eventually had to be removed. The ground space in front of the greenhouses visually resembles the shape of the greenhouses themselves, as if their facade had been laid on the ground. Within the arched spaces there are benches surrounded by a hedge of European privet.
Since 1997, the area in front of the greenhouses has been decorated with four stone fountains known as ‘The springs of the Earth’. Photo: Libor Teplý, 2019.
A bird’s eye view of the whole campus, including the garden s is always interesting. Today, you can use drones with a camera in some places , while in others we still have to rely on a roof window of the surrounding building s , from which we have to lean out dangerously with an expensive camera to achieve...
T wo low greenhouses were built on the right and left sides of building no. 4 f or the Department of Physiology and , later , the Department of Plant Physiology and the Department of Genetics at the Faculty of Science, Masaryk University . The se were entered from the cellar or through the English...
