Government College University Lahore Botanic Garden

Botanic Garden of Government College University Lahore, Pakistan is being managed by the Department of Botany since 1912 with its mission statement; “to provide an interactive platform for education and applied research focusing on various aspects of plants such as conservation, taxonomy, plant eco-physiology, and sustainability”. The garden follows the design of first Botanic Garden of the world, at Padua Italy. This seven acre of land has around 700 species from 132 plant families displayed in 30 different plots, including the herbal garden.

The age old exotic collection is representing various regions such as; Himalayan, Sub-himalayan, Indo-Malayan, Sino-Japanese, African, Australian, and American. While, the native species are introduced through seeds collected from the wild, representing the species of ‘Tropical Thorn forest’ i.e, Salvadora oleoides, Prosopis cineraria, Capparis decidua and Tamarix aphylla. The other native species include the representation of ‘scrub forest’ i.e, Acacia modesta, Olea ferruginea, Adhathoda vesica, Dodonea viscoa and Zizyphus numularia. Pinus roxburghii represents the native pines of mountainous ecosystems. Nannorrhops ritchiana (Mazri) represents the native palm species, while Butea monosperma represents the tropical dry deciduous forest. The other important indigenous species include, Salvadora persica, Ephedra ciliata, Juniper sp. Adiantum sp. etc.

The garden is functioning as a living class room for the students of all educational institutes of Pakistan, particularly the province of Punjab. Every year and a large number students from various institutes (schools, colleges, and universities) are demonstrated with guided-visits to observe the plant diversity mentioned in their syllabi, which makes it a popular destination for the relevant students groups visiting Lahore. It is the integral part of Botany, and provides the needed plant material for various courses offered by the department and sustainable development study center. It also provides the laboratory facilitates, research plant material and space to conduct the field research experiments for the post graduate studies. Being the oldest in Pakistan and playing the active role in Botanic Garden community, it is also secretariat of Pakistan Botanic Gardens Network, with the aim to promote and facilitate the plant conservation, expertise exchange, training, and establishment of Botanic Gardens across the country.