Taipei Botanical Garden

The garden was an important site for plant research in the Japanese colonial period. It covers about 8 hectares and keeps experimental and research species introduced at that time from Taiwan, Japan, mainland China and Southeast Asia. It is divided into areas by plant classification and habit, each with its own theme and with signs introducing unusual plants, such as the Lotus Pond, the Zodiac Garden, the Succulent Garden, the Fern Garden, the Book of Songs Garden, the Folk Plants Garden and the Palm Garden. The vegetation changes with the seasons. Besides the plant displays, two city-designated historic sites stand in the garden. The Qinchai Xingtai (Imperial Envoy's Office) was completed in 1894 and served as the Office of the Governor-General of Taiwan for 25 years. It is the only surviving Qing-era government building in the southern Fujian style in Taiwan, and it has stood through the Qing, Japanese colonial and Republic of China eras. The Herbarium was built in 1924, originally as the herbarium of the Forestry Department of the Central Research Institute. To develop Taiwan's forest resources, plants collected in the wild were dried and kept as herbarium specimens for identifying species, and it was the first building in Taiwan built specifically to store herbarium specimens. The botanical garden was established in 1921.

Translated and shortened by DealTaipei from Taiwan's national tourism database. Sources are on the terms page.