Woody and herbaceous plants have begun to bloom in the Botanical Garden of the Ural Federal University. According to Victor Valdayskikh, the Director of the UrFU Botanical Garden, due to the peculiarities of this year’s spring the plants began to bloom earlier and will delight the university staff and visitors for a long time.
“The climate is changing, even in the Middle Urals, and we can see it in the Botanical Garden. For example, the apple trees blossomed almost two weeks earlier. Probably for the first time in the history of Ekaterinburg pear trees blossomed on Victory Day. Since spring is early but long, we can enjoy the blossoms a little longer,” says Victor Valdaiskikh.
Today, the Botanical Garden of the university contains 700 species of woody plants and more than 90 species of rare protected plants, which are listed in the IUCN Red List of different levels. Among the flowering rare plants are the Cortusiform Primrose, the Paeonia Anomala, the Rhodiola Rosea, the Northern Linum and others.
“We bring plants from all over the world, at least from the climatic zones close to us. Not only do we preserve rare species of plants, but we also share them with local schools and kindergartens. More than a hundred of them have received plants from us. And we are still doing it,” says Valdayskikh.
Employees of the Department of Wildlife and Flora Conservation of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment of the Sverdlovsk Region, helped prepare the Botanical Garden for the summer. Every year for the past 11 years, experts have been helping to tidy up the Botanical Garden: they clean the paths, remove dry grass, and do other work.