Nikitsky Botanical Gardens
(Nikita - Yalta, Crimea, Ukraine)
In year 1812, near the village of Nikita, six kilometers apart from Yalta, Crimea, Ukraine, an economo-botanical garden was laid out, later called the Nikitsky Botanical Gardens. Russian botanist Christian Steven (click the picture to the left), a Swede by birth, was its founder and first director.
Designed in landscape style, its picturesque terraces descending to the sea, the Nikitsky Botanical Gardens is considered one of the finest in Europe. Its parks are a peculiar open-air museum, which comprises more than 18,000 species of plants from Mediterranean countries, South-East Asia and South America.
Nikita Botanical Gardens is a large scientific-research institute as well as a beautiful tourist attraction. The Gardens belong to the Ukraine Academy of Agrarian Sciences (UAAS). The main direction of its work is the study of natural flora and vegetation, collection of plants, introduction into culture, and selection of new varieties for industrial fruit culture and floriculture. Nikita Botanical Gardens (NBG) has branches in the Crimea and in the Kherson region of Ukraine.The total area of the NBG exceeds 1100 hectares. NBG's coastline is 6 kilometers. The institute has 12 scientific departments. It has the largest herbarium in Europe, the oldest library in Crimea, and a scientific museum, attached to a fruit tasting cafe. The Gardens annually hosts about half a million visitors.
The Nikita Gardens complex includes two hotels, currently being restored, along with other commercial and health facilities. These relate to the Gardens' 50,000 species, varieties and hybrids of flowers, fruits, olives, nuts and woody, subtropical, industrial, oil-bearing and medical plants, including rare and endangered species.
The staff numbers about 1000, among whom are 130 scientific-research workers including academic and corresponding-member of UAAS, 4 professors, 15 doctors 80 candidates for science degrees; 40 students taking post-graduate courses at NBG. There is a Specialized Board on Defense of Candidate and Doctoral Theses.
