• NAME San Fernando Garden, RABJEN, Spain
  • WEBSITE http://www.reservatuvisita.es/es/establecimiento/jardin-botanico
  • EMAIL jbotanico.sfernando.cma@juntadeandalucia.es
  • PHONE  (+34) 956 20 31 92
  • OPENING HOURS From October 1 to May 31:
    • Tuesday to Friday (9:00 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.).
    • Saturday and Sunday (9:00 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. and 4:00 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.).

    From June 1 to September 30:

    • Tuesday to Friday (9:00 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.).
    • Saturday and Sunday (9:00 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. and 6:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.).

    Closed: Mondays except holidays and January 1, January 6, December 25 and 31.

  • OWNERSHIP Public institution. Consejería de Medio Ambiente y Ordenación del Territorio (CMAOT).
  • DIRECTOR Carmen Rodriguez Hiraldo
  • FACILITIES Accessible. It is divided into areas showcasing the flora of the province of Cádiz, with a special focus on marsh ecosystems, and others dedicated to American and Canarian flora, which had a major influence in this part of Andalusia in the 19th century.
  • AREA (IN SQM) 1 hA
  • NUMBER OF SPECIES 530
  • CONSERVATION PROGRAMMES

1) Locating and monitoring of protected, endangered, endemic and rare flora and fungi taxa present in Andalusia.

2) Collection of seeds and other propagules from the taxa under study, for the following purposes:

    • Development of germination and establishment protocols.
    • Representation in different botanical and mycological gardens.
    • Conservation in the Andalusian Plant Germplasm Bank.
    • Reintroduction or population reinforcement actions in the environment.

3) Representation of the vegetation, flora and mycoflora that characterise the various biogeographical sectors of Andalusia.

4) Maintenance of conservation collections and genetic rescues.

5) Participation in the development of Planes de Recuperación approved by la Consejería de Medio Ambiente y Ordenación del Territorio, in this case, two of the four plans currently approved: Pteridophytes and Dunas-Arenales.

6) Collaboration in the Life Conhabit Project for the conservation and improvement of priority habitats on the Andalusian coast.

Project LIFE 13/ES/00586. This project aims to promote the improvement and conservation of the priority habitats of the Directiva Hábitat 92/43/EEC present in Lugares de Interés Comunitario (LIC) on the Andalusian coast, acting on the threats that affect them and, at the same time, contributing to the improvement of the species they harbour.

  • RESEARCH PROGRAMMES 

1) Collaboration with research centers, such as the CSIC, and universities, both regional and national, for the study of protected and endangered taxa present in the Andalusian community. The collections of botanical and mycological gardens are a tool for the development of scientific studies, as they offer genetic material from remote locations in nature and bring together species in a single place for more effective research. Research centers such as the CSIC, other botanical gardens, private foundations, companies, and various universities rely on the equipment and resources offered by the Network to carry out projects in different fields, including studies on pests, the effects of herbivory, trials with special substrates, and the monitoring of invasive alien species.

2) Collaboration with the Sociedad Española de Biología de la Conservación de Plantas (SEBICOP) on the SEFA Project (Seguimiento de Especies de Flora Amenazadas y de Protección Especial en España). It means studying the status of different species included in the annexes of the Directiva Hábitat, the Catálogo Español, or the LESPRE. The San Fernando Botanical Garden participates in research on species such as Diplazium caudatum, Pteris imcompleta, and Hymenostemma pseudoanthemis, among others.

3) It also collaborates by providing information for the Inventario Español del Patrimonio Natural y la Biodiversidad.

4) Permanent member of the Iberomacaronesian Association of Botanical Gardens.

  • EDUCATION PROGRAMMES

The actions carried out are:

  1. The Aldea Program, a program developed in collaboration with the Regional Ministry of Education, whose objective is to promote the integrated development of educational initiatives for the conservation of natural resources and the promotion of sustainable development within the Andalusian educational community, with the aim of contributing to a more environmentally friendly, fair, and supportive society, enabling the achievement of a comprehensive education that shares and is based on the four educational pillars proposed by UNESCO: Learning to be / Learning to live together / Learning to know / Learning to do.
  2. Training courses for professional sectors that require technical training in endangered and interesting flora.
  3. Activities and workshops on different topics and at different levels aimed at all types of audiences as a way of introducing them to Andalusia’s floral values: workshops on photography, traditional uses of plants, knowledge of certain plant groups, etc.
  4. Guided tours to learn about the contents of the different botanical gardens.
  5. Permanent workshops with groups that can observe the dynamics of the gardens at different times of the year.

The San Fernando Botanical Garden, located in the Cadiz city of the same name, was opened in 1998 as the first public facility in the Bahía de Cádiz Natural Park, a wetland area of special importance for bird migration.

 

Built on the site of a former forest nursery, which retains its terraced structure at different heights, the greenhouse converted into a multipurpose room, and the gravity irrigation system with its pools, channels, and tidal well, recreates the flora and vegetation of the province of Cadiz.

 

Visitors can take a tour of the different forests, scrublands, and crops of Cádiz represented in the central plots of the Mediterranean Garden, observe the vegetation of the lagoons of the Cadiz countryside in a small pond, see how plants adapt to salinity in the recreation of the marsh, or get close to the flora that inhabits the different rocky substrates and sparse soil of dunes, cliffs, rocky slopes, and gorges of our mountain ranges.

 

The Conservation Collection showcases endangered species from the Cadiz-Huelva-Algarve region that this facility works to conserve. Two other collections of foreign plants show us the plants found in gardens and parks in the different municipalities of the Bay of Cadiz in the Bay Garden and a representation of plants that have come to our land from the Canary Islands and America in the Acclimatization Garden. A total of more than 500 different species in less than 1 hectare of exhibition collection.

 

 

 

 

 

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