Southern Federal University's botanical garden

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Southern Federal University’s botanical garden is in Rostov-on-Don, Russia, in the Temernik river valley. It was the first botanical garden in the southern treeless zone and today covers more than 200 hectares. The site also features a mineral spring named St. Seraphim of Sarov, regarded as an Orthodox shrine by the garden.

The idea for a city botanical garden began in 1915 after the University of Warsaw was moved to Rostov-on-Don because of danger near Warsaw. In 1927, the city allocated 74.11 hectares for the garden, led by professors V. F. Chmielewski and V. N. Varshavskogo. The design followed the map of the North Caucasus, with main paths and alleys aligned to the region’s contours and railway lines. In the first years, many plants did not survive in the new conditions. By 1940, the collection had grown to more than 1,000 plants, including hornbeam, sycamore, and velvet tree.

During World War II, German occupation caused heavy damage: greenhouses, buildings, and plant collections were destroyed, and many large trees were lost. About 100 garden forms were killed.

After the war, the garden’s buildings and collections were rebuilt. Today it operates as a state educational and scientific unit of the Southern Federal University. The garden hosts more than 6,500 species of trees, shrubs, and herbaceous plants. Its greenhouses contain a tropical and subtropical collection with around 1,600 species, and overall more than 5,000 species grow across the garden and its greenhouses, including flora from Africa, Southeast Asia, the Americas, and Australia.