The main bot is the garden named after Tsitsina. The most interesting exhibitions of the Main Botanical Garden

Main Botanical Garden named after. N.V. Tsitsin RAS (GBS) was founded on April 14, 1945 to commemorate the 220th anniversary of the USSR Academy of Sciences. However, long before this, within the framework of the general Urban Development Plan for Moscow, there was a program for the creation of a Botanical Garden, as evidenced by archival documents - preliminary designs of 1940 and 1945, developed by the architect I.M. Petrov. According to the 1940 project, the boundaries of the Botanical Garden were supposed to run along the Circular Railway from the north, modern street named after. Academician Korolev from the south, capturing the territory of the entire Marfinsky complex in the west, and in the east extending to Mira Avenue. According to the 1945 project, the northern and southern borders remained unchanged, but from the west the garden was limited by Botanicheskaya Street. (except for the area under the modern production territory), and in the east - Agricultural Street. In both cases, the territory of the Botanical Garden, in addition to the current ones, included, according to the projects, the lands of the All-Union Agricultural Exhibition (the modern All-Russian Exhibition Center), the Ostankino estate, Ostankino Park (F.E. Dzerzhinsky Park) and part of the Leonovsky Forest. In both cases, it was a wonderful compositional solution with a clear axial structure, a developed and functionally convenient road and path network and deeply thought-out zoning.

Modern planning project, i.e. new master plan 1948-1950, developed by architect I.M. Petrov under the leadership of Academician N.V. Tsitsin and academician A.V. Shchuseva. It included: a large part of the Ostankino oak grove (Erdenevskaya Grove), limited from the south by the Sheremetevsky ponds, two of which are located on the territory of the GBS RAS, and the rest belong to the All-Russian Exhibition Center, part of the Leonovsky forest in the east in the floodplain of the river. Yauza and a production site along Vladykinskoye Highway (now Botanicheskaya Street), designated specifically for a nursery. The development of projects for the ground part near the modern main entrance and laboratory building, as well as the idea of ​​​​creating artificial micro-landscapes of the arboretum, included in natural plantings in order to minimize their transformation, belongs to another outstanding landscape architect, educated in France, L.E. Rosenberg. According to his project, one of the world's largest arboretums was created, including 1,900 species of trees and shrubs from all over the world. In the period 1950-1970. In the Botanical Garden, all the main expositions were built and collection areas were created - models of geographical landscapes of the USSR in the flora department, an extensive collection of floral and ornamental plants and the exhibitions "Rosary", "Garden of Continuous Flowering", "Garden of Coastal Plants" and "Shadow Garden". The Stock Greenhouse houses one of the largest collections of tropical and subtropical plants in Europe, numbering about 5,300 species and forms.

By a resolution of the Presidium of the USSR Academy of Sciences on December 2, 1991, the Main Botanical Garden was named after Academician N.V. Tsitsina.

Today the garden area is 361 hectares, incl. 52 hectares - park area (birch grove, oak grove, individual forest areas), 150.4 hectares - exposition (areas of dendroflora of cultivated plants, decorative floriculture, landscape architecture), 52 hectares - area of ​​reserved oak forest, as well as a nursery, experimental areas, ponds, etc.

The collection funds of the Main Botanical Garden are a national and world treasure. Living collections number 17,400 taxa (9,670 species, subspecies, varieties, forms and 7,730 varieties), including a collection of plants of natural flora - 1,750 species (about 170 rare and endangered), dendrological collection - 1,330 species, 530 forms and varieties (1860 taxa), collection of tropical and subtropical plants - 4510 species and 1390 cultivars (5900 taxa), collection of floral and ornamental plants - 5550 taxa (1350 species and 4200 varieties), collection of cultivated plants and their wild relatives - 2320 taxa (720 species and 1600 varieties).

The arboretum (collection of woody plants) of the Main Botanical Garden of the Russian Academy of Sciences is located on 75 hectares of picturesque terrain, where exotic woody plants from different regions of the globe coexist with the natural vegetation of our Central Russian strip. Most of the arboretum is located in a forest of English oak with an undergrowth of hazel. At the beginning, at the entrance, there is a birch grove, and only a few of our local species - spruce and pine - can be found on the territory of the arboretum. In the undergrowth of wild woody plants in the arboretum you can see buckthorn, zoster, rowan, honeysuckle and other plants. But the main attraction of the arboretum is its exotic plants: trees, shrubs and vines that came to us both from remote areas of our country (Siberia, Far East, Caucasus), and from near and far abroad - from Crimea, Central Asia, North America, China, Japan, Mediterranean countries. Many of them have found a second home here, successfully acclimatized to our conditions, bloom and give birth, others get used to our climate with difficulty, freeze in harsh winters and need a lot of attention and care from humans. Such plants have to be wrapped for the winter, fed with various fertilizers, trying as much as possible to bring the new living conditions closer to the familiar conditions of their distant homeland.

Landscape exhibition "Japanese Garden" in GBS
attractive at any time of the year

The Arboretum began to be created in 1949, and over the years, more than 3,000 types of plants have been tested there. Now the collection includes more than 1,700 species of trees, shrubs and vines. Collecting a collection is a long and labor-intensive process. Employees of the dendrology department, engaged in the cultivation and study of woody plants, look for plants in nature, bring from there seeds, cuttings and whole small plants, covering thousands of kilometers in an hour to their new place of residence. Botanical gardens also exchange seeds and plants among themselves, issuing special lists for information on the availability of seeds, which are sent to related botanical institutions. Arrived seeds and plants are registered and they first go to the nursery, where they are sown in the greenhouse, and then planted on ridges to grow a little before being sent to the arboretum. In the arboretum, plants are planted not randomly, but in a certain order. Species related to each other, belonging to the same genus, are planted nearby, i.e. The construction of the arboretum is based on the so-called taxonomic, or systematic, principle. For example, all types of birch can be found at the very beginning of the arboretum on both sides of the main road, where they are planted under the canopy of our local weeping birch. To create a more picturesque landscape, coniferous plants are scattered throughout the arboretum. Typically, each plant species is represented not only by several specimens, but also by several specimens - a collection of plants obtained or brought from different natural habitats, different botanical gardens or at different times. This makes it possible to select the most stable of them for our conditions.

Rare plants listed in the Red Book of Russia receive special attention. In nature, they usually grow in small areas, but are at risk of complete extinction. Therefore, their protection in artificial cultural plantings is very important. We urge all visitors to the arboretum to treat with love and attention the unique plants of our Motherland, such as the microbiota, known only in the south of the Primorsky Territory, the graceful fir, growing only on 22 hectares in Kamchatka, the berry yew, which has the most beautiful wood and is therefore mercilessly cut down in the Caucasus , Maksimovich birch - the rarest tree of the Kuril Islands, and many other plants that give people joy, but need their protection. All this plant wealth can be seen in the arboretum, walking both along its wide asphalt roads and along the picturesque paths laid near the exhibitions.

The landscape exhibition "Japanese Garden" was built in 1983-1987 according to the design of the famous Japanese landscape architect Ken Nakajima, with the participation of architect Takeo Adachi and the Japanese construction company Watana-be-Tomi. Organizational and financial support was provided by the Japanese Embassy in Moscow, the Japan Foundation and the Memorial Association of the World Exhibition EXPO-70.

Cascades of small waterfalls, ponds with islands, pavilions in traditional Japanese architectural style, a thirteen-story pagoda and stone lanterns help visitors believe in the existence of harmony between nature and human activity, a clear example of which is the Japanese Garden.

The exhibition features more than 100 species of plants, many of which were brought from the Japanese island of Hokkaido - the famous sakura, David's elm, Japanese rhododendron, mono maple and many others.

Spring in the Japanese Garden begins with the blooming of bright yellow forsythia and blue brunera. You should admire the cherry blossoms - the symbol of Japan - in late April - early May. Following the sakura, apricots and rhododendrons bloom.

Irises mark the beginning of summer by blooming, passing the blue-violet baton to silvery lavender and pink shields of Japanese spirea. Kuril tea flowers, like gold coins, shine on the bushes until late autumn.

An amazingly beautiful time in the garden - autumn. Crimson-red leaves of maples, pink boxes of euonymus, dark purple leaves of rhododendrons create the illusion of repeated flowering.

As it should be, the garden has its own unique charm in every season of the year. Winter is no exception! At this time of year it is deserted, whitewashed, austere. Caps of snow lie on the roofs of the pavilions, the pagoda and the Yukimi-toro lantern specially designed for admiring the snow.

Today, the botanical collections of the GBS serve as the main basis for scientific research in the field of plant introductions and are a unique collection of the gene pool of the plant world. They play an important role in conducting fundamental research in the field of taxonomy, evolution, biochemistry and physiology, plant adaptation to biotic and abiotic environmental factors. In addition, the collections are of great practical importance. They serve as the initial mother material of plants of various utility groups that have passed the introduction test.

Expositions of plants of natural flora are located in the eastern part of the Garden, adjacent to the All-Russian Exhibition Center. Here, on an area of ​​30 hectares, six botanical and geographical exhibitions have been created: “European part of Russia”, “Caucasus”, “Central Asia”, “Siberia”, “Far East”, as well as the exhibition “Useful plants of natural flora”.

The exhibitions feature plants of the tundra, various types of forests (dark coniferous, light coniferous, broad-leaved, coniferous-deciduous, etc.), meadows, including alpine and subalpine, steppes, deserts - 1,750 species, of which about 170 are rare and endangered. Moisture-loving plants are grouped near ponds and watercourses. On artificially created hills, different in size and shape, groups of plants from altitudinal zones of various botanical and geographical regions are placed.

The stock greenhouse (built in 1954) is a unique combination of a living museum of tropical and subtropical plants, accessible to a wide range of visitors, an educational institution, on the basis of which, through the efforts of researchers and guides, biological knowledge and nature conservation are promoted among the population (especially among schoolchildren and students) and a scientific advisory center studying biological diversity and possible ways of using subtropical and tropical plants.

The greenhouse is a repository of living collections received initially from botanical gardens in Germany and supplemented as a result of exchanges and purchases in various botanical institutions around the globe, as well as collected by GBS employees during expeditions in various tropical regions (Vietnam, Madagascar, India, Cuba, Brazil and etc.).

Currently, the area is about 5 thousand square meters. m collected 5,900 species and cultural forms of heat-loving plants, including one of the largest collections of orchids in the country (more than 1,000 species and cultivars). Of great scientific and aesthetic value are the collections of ferns (200 taxa), aroids (250 taxa), azaleas (over 100 varieties), and proteaceae (about 70 taxa). The exhibition of aquatic and coastal plants, numbering 244 species, is considered one of the best in Europe.

The stock greenhouse is also a repository for rare and endangered plants. More than a hundred species from its collections are included in the International Red Book.

The work on remote hybridization of wheat with wheatgrass, begun by Tsitsin in 1927, was continued in 1932–1938. in Omsk, and then in the Moscow region - in Nemchinovka and in Snegiri, where they successfully continued until the last days of the scientist’s life. As a result of hard work, Tsitsin and his colleagues for the first time obtained hybrids between the main types of wheat and three types of wheatgrass (as well as with one of the Siberian varieties of wheatgrass). In subsequent years, the scientist created mid-early (with a shorter growing season) varieties of wheat-wheatgrass hybrids, characterized by high yields and a complex of other economically valuable traits. At the same time, new varieties of wheat were created that had a branched ear structure. Before this, only forms of spring durum wheat existed in nature. The scientist managed to create varieties of winter soft branched wheat, that is, forms that previously did not exist in nature at all. One of Tsitsin's pioneering works was the creation of multigrain forms of wheat with particularly high productivity. In the recent past, all varieties of wheat had ears with one or two grains. In modern wheat varieties, the number of flowers in spikelets is five, and the number of grains does not exceed four. Based on the distant hybridization of cultivated wheat with wild cereal plants, Tsitsin managed, for the first time in world practice, to create hybrid forms of wheat, in the spikelets of which the number of flowers reaches nine and the number of grains reaches six to eight, which leads to a significant increase in yield.

Among the varieties created by the scientist in the last years of his life, it is worth noting the intermediate constant (stable in offspring) forms of wheat, which have a high protein content and compete in yield with the best standards of this crop. Knowing about such a property of wheatgrass as perenniality, Tsitsin, for the first time in the history of breeding and genetic science, created a completely new type of wheat plant, which is of great scientific and practical importance - perennial wheat, which he named Triticum agropynotriticum . Tsitsin’s work on the creation of high-yielding lodging-resistant varieties and forms with shortened and filled straw was also of great practical importance. Typically, soft wheat varieties have a hollow straw, but in the hybrids he obtained, it was filled with parenchyma throughout the entire stem, which gave the plants greater resistance to lodging.

The scientist and his collaborators successfully used polyploid forms of plants (containing several sets of chromosomes in cells) in breeding. In particular, a tetraploid (with four sets of chromosomes in somatic cells) winter rye variety “Start” was created, which had high winter hardiness and productivity. Particularly interesting is the work of Tsitsin and his students on the hybridization of wheat, rye and barley with elymus (giant, sandy and soft). Based on 29 combinations of crossing soft and durum wheat with three types of elimus, seven generations of wheat-elimus hybrids were obtained. In 1968–1969 In the process of hybridization of wheat with soft elymus, highly productive constant 42-chromosomal hybrids were isolated for the first time. They were distinguished by their large ears and grains, containing over 20% protein and more than 40% gluten.

It was a bright head in which ideas blossomed one after another. This was a man who strived with every fiber of his soul to create something new and promote botanical and breeding science. Like many prominent scientists, he had oddities that, they say, were more suitable for an uneducated peasant than for an academician with an all-Union name (they claimed that he “removed damage” from a village healer or at scientific conferences he called for following the Chinese version and exterminating everyone sparrows, which allegedly spoil crops). But we know him first as a project manager on an all-Union scale.

It was this man who first headed VDNKh (which opened under the name VSKhV - All-Union Agricultural Exhibition 76 years ago). It was he who took the helm of a grandiose work: first he opened and headed the Main Botanical Garden in Moscow, and then coordinated the creation of a network of botanical gardens throughout the Union. All this is he, Nikolai Tsitsin, a native of our city, who took his first steps in breeding work here.
The warm season, for obvious reasons, is the best period for the work of a scientist involved in selection, genetics, botany, and the most significant achievements of Nikolai Vasilyevich occur precisely in the spring-summer: April 14 (the victorious spring of 1945!) is considered the founding day of the Botanical Garden in Moscow , and August 2, 1939 is the opening day of the All-Russian Agricultural Exhibition. However, the “top of summer” also marks a sad date: exactly 35 years ago, on July 17, 1980, Academician Tsitsin passed away.
Let's remember this man, another great Nikolai of Russian genetics and selection, closely connected with Saratov...

Nikolay the second Russian selection
If you say the words “Nikolai”, “genetics” and “Saratov” one after another, then the first association will, naturally, be Nikolai VAVILOV. The brilliant scientist was unlucky: the city where he first promulgated his famous law of homological series, the city where he was called “Mendeleev of biology,” brought him misfortune, hunger and death. Nikolai Ivanovich’s namesake, Nikolai Vasilyevich Tsitsin, probably did not have the dizzying flight of thought of his colleague, the depth of development of the problem, the extraordinary exclusivity of ideas (however, this is a field for judgments and assessments exclusively of specialists. - Author.) But Nikolai the Second from biology luckier. Significantly more. He lived a long successful life, STALIN himself trusted him, he managed to practically implement most of his projects, ideas, and initiatives. Of course, this is happiness for a scientist.
The achievements of Nikolai Vavilov are striking even in the geography of the colossal selection work: as is known, N.I. was the first European to travel with a caravan through the mountainous Kafiristan, an inaccessible region of Afghanistan; Vavilov was in the Sahara, in Ethiopia, in Syria, he had the opportunity to drive away hungry lions and fight with robbers, selecting grains for a future collection right under bullets. Having visited America, Africa, China and Japan, the Middle East and Central Asia, the peaks of Tibet and the Andes, he collected colossal material - a precious collection of plant seeds, the likes of which had never been collected by anyone.
Tsitsin's life and work, especially at an early stage, are not so bright and do not strike the eye with the variety of forms and scientific approaches. The future academician was born on December 18, 1898 in Saratov into a poor family. After his father's death, his mother gave Nikolai to an orphanage. As a teenager, he began working as a messenger, telegraph operator, and packer in a factory. During the Civil War he took the side of the Reds, fought, in particular, participated in the defense of Tsaritsyn. With the end of hostilities, N.V. returned to Saratov and took the position of head of the cultural department here and became a member of the Provincial Communications Committee (organizational abilities were already evident then). Having only primary education, I decided to continue my studies - first at the workers' faculty, and then at the agronomy faculty of the Saratov Institute of Agriculture and Land Reclamation. In 1927, the young agronomist found a job at the Saratov Agricultural Experimental Station (later the Research Institute of the South-East). It was here that he met people who changed his life, including biologists-breeders Georgy MEISTER, Alexey SHEKHURDIN and future academician Pyotr KONSTANTINOV.
Tsitsin’s fate was decided: he finally decided to engage in scientific selection, and a little later he would add social and organizational activities to implement large-scale research projects.

Wheat + wheatgrass = food security?
Another meeting that had a huge impact on Tsitsin was the meeting with Ivan MICHURIN. Nikolai Vasilyevich visited Michurin’s garden while still a student, and he said: “Anyone can cross wheat with wheat. Now, if we could find a stronger manufacturer for her, then it would be a different matter...”
The task of obtaining unpretentious varieties of wheat capable of feeding the country was then, at the end of the 20s of the 20th century, more pressing than ever. The terrible famine in the Volga region was still fresh in my memory, collectivization and a new famine in the early 30s were inexorably approaching. And then Tsitsin, inspired by Michurin’s words, decided to cross wheat... with wheatgrass. It was a bold decision: attempts to literally mix the wheat with the chaff, to cross the symbol of the country’s food security with a malicious weed could, I beg your pardon, easily be equated with sabotage, and the conversation with the “pests” was short then. But Tsitsin took a chance and won: having started work on obtaining wheatgrass-wheat hybrids in Saratov, in 1932 he moved to Omsk, where he headed a specialized laboratory (later it would become the Siberian Research Institute of Grain Farming).
...Now, from time to time, reproaches are heard against Tsitsin: they say that he lived in the “agricultural era” of the notorious Trofim LYSENKO and partly identified with his views. Perhaps some of these reproaches are fair, and Nikolai Vasilyevich preferred not to oppose Lysenko in his activities and actually used a certain administrative resource. How else? Clouds were already gathering over Vavilov, a purge of the scientific community was already being prepared... They were preparing, so to speak, to separate the wheat from the chaff... But it was necessary to work. However, even before the Great Patriotic War, N.V. nevertheless quarreled with Lysenko and he ordered Tsitsin’s experimental fields to be plowed.
It is believed that the main goal that Qiqing set for himself was to create perennial wheat. He rose to prominence on this project, and in this area of ​​work he caught the eye of the country’s top leadership. Agricultural experts explain: if noble wheat and harmful wheatgrass were combined in the “golden” proportion, it would be an agricultural revolution. Tsitsin received his first full-fledged hybrid after the war, but in the next generations the wheatgrass genes took over, and the grain was too small, and the harvest was unprofitable, then the wheat genes prevailed - but then the crop was sick.
And the “golden mean” for creating a hardy and tenacious cereal, like wheatgrass, and nutritious and productive, like wheat, is still being sought.

Main projects of life: exhibition and garden
In 1938, Nikolai Tsitsin was appointed director of the All-Union Agricultural Exhibition under construction in Moscow. Last year, the capital celebrated the 75th anniversary of the opening of this grandiose exhibition project. In Saratov, the event went, in principle, unnoticed, although the main hero of the occasion was a native of our city.
...On August 2, 1939, over 10 thousand people came to the opening of the All-Russian Agricultural Exhibition in Moscow, Marshal VOROSHILOV, MOLOTOV and Anastas MIKOYAN came. However, the one whom Tsitsin was waiting for more than all the others was not honored. Maybe it was for the better: the leader did not witness the slight embarrassment when Nikolai Vasilyevich pulled the cable to raise the exhibition flag, but something jammed and the flag never flew up.
However, VSHV, even with the jammed flag, was a huge success: in the first year (in 1939 it worked for only two and a half months) three and a half (!) million people visited it. The next year - five months of work and 4.5 million Muscovites and guests of the capital became acquainted with the latest achievements of agriculture, including Tsitsin’s achievements. In 1941, the exhibition was supposed to switch to a permanent format, but was closed a month after the opening of the exhibition. For obvious reasons... And Academician Tsitsin, vice-president of the All-Russian Academy of Agricultural Sciences, went to Alma-Ata, where he continued hard work on the issues of remaking the nature of plants and in 1943 received the Stalin Prize: “I will also introduce into the practice of state and collective farms the new perennials we have created and annual varieties of hybrid wheat.<…>In order to strengthen the power of the Red Army, I ask you to transfer the money from the prize awarded to me, 100,000 rubles, to a special fund of the High Command,” he wrote to the person whose name the prize awarded to N.V. was named.
The war has not yet ended, the victorious salvoes in Berlin have not died down, and Tsitsin finds himself at the head of a new project - the Main Botanical Garden. As contemporaries testify, Tsitsin was very attentive to the implementation of this large-scale initiative, corrected the design documentation, developed the layout of the garden, and tried to fit the new object into the unique protected oak grove, into the special picturesque landscape of this place, as gratefully as possible for nature. I have had the opportunity to visit the Main Botanical Garden more than once, now named after N.V. Tsitsin, a truly amazing place, whoever hasn’t been, deign to visit!
Interesting fact: the basis of the GBS greenhouse was made up of plants from the personal winter garden of Reichsmarshal GOERING, taken from Potsdam. Moreover, they transported not only the flora - they dismantled and reassembled the entire structure in place in the new garden.
As you know, Nikolai Vasilyevich remained the permanent director of both the exhibition and the capital’s botanical garden until his death. In the same way, he did not stop his enormous research work, even a short description of which would not fit in this material. While holding leading positions in Russian science, he was always in the center of public attention. They talked about him a lot, willingly and in different ways: someone talked about how he sent orchids to Ekaterina FURTSEVA, and to Yuri GAGARIN - cacti, which the First, as you know, collected throughout his short life. Someone sarcastically recalled (was it or not?) how Academician Tsitsin, for a moment, the chairman of the All-Russian Society for Nature Conservation, allegedly called on the Young Naturalists in the 50s to exterminate sparrows, by analogy with the experience of the “great helmsman” of the MAO. The author of the Moscow anthem “My Dear Capital”, Mark LISYANSKY, is credited with a malicious epigram: “The birds have fallen silent, / The bees are not buzzing. / Academician Tsitsin / Is embraced by silence...” (I hope that this refers to the dream of an elderly scientist). But, I think, it was clear to both humorists and envious people that in front of them was a man of colossal research culture, experience and patience.
P.S. On September 10 of this year it will be exactly 30 years since the bust of Nikolai Vasilyevich Tsitsin was inaugurated at the intersection of Rakhov and, of course, Vavilov streets. Then, in September 1985, the widow of the academician Alla Andreevna, as well as the entire top of the Saratov managerial, industrial, scientific and agricultural elite, were present at the opening of the monument.
Nikolai Vasilyevich always loved color.

If we cover the sights of the capital, which every person simply must visit, then the list of the most important of them will certainly include the Main Botanical Garden, named after its first director Nikolai Vasilyevich Tsitsin. Located in the eastern part of Moscow, next to VDNKh, the Botanical Garden welcomes its guests from late April to mid-October. Before the opening of each season, as well as after its completion, regular plantings of cultivated plants are carried out in the garden.

Botanical address, opening hours

The nearest metro station from the GBS is "Vladykino", from which bus route 76 runs from there, on which those who want to visit the country's largest botanical garden will travel only 4 stops to the Ostankino hotel. Starting from April 29, GBS operates daily from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. The season traditionally ends on October 19. Guests planning to visit the exhibitions should carefully read the opening hours. Some exhibitions are closed 2 days a week for maintenance work. An exhibition such as the “Japanese Garden” has a shortened opening hours from Tuesday to Friday.

Wide range of exhibitions and greenhouses

Includes a diverse collection of plants brought from all over the world. The country's richest botanical collection began in the spring of 1945. Since then, outstanding botanists and breeders have worked to expand the exhibitions. Guests of the garden can visit the following exhibitions:

• The famous Japanese Garden.
• The best collection of tropical aquatic plants in Europe.
• "Arboretum".
• "Rose garden".
• "Continuously blooming garden."
• "Exhibition of cultivated plants."
• "Shadow Garden"
• Numerous greenhouses.
• Exhibition of natural flora.
• Collection of flowering ornamental plants.

GBS card

If your plans for the near future include visiting the Botanical Garden (Moscow), you can see how to get there on the travel map. Believe me, you will not regret this excursion! In addition to the exhibitions already described, on the territory there are: a protected oak grove, a heather garden and areas of natural forest. The employees of the laboratory building help to monitor all this splendor; the collection greenhouse helps to preserve the collections in their original form. Botanists and breeders of the GBS do not want to rest on the laurels of past achievements and plan to expand existing collections, as well as build new exhibitions.

Botanical Garden (Moscow), how to get there for a visitor

If guests of the capital have poor local orientation, especially if they decide to visit the GBS for the first time, then it will be useful for them to know the following: the main thing is to find the route to the Vladykino metro station on metro maps. From the station to the main entrance to the exhibitions you will have to walk approximately 10 minutes. The main gate is located on the side of Botanicheskaya Street. In addition to the main entrance, there are several gates around the perimeter of the garden. On the road from the metro exit you will see a small gate. There are also entrances from the border with VDNH.

Traveling by personal transport

Many nature lovers travel by personal transport, so the question arises when they want to visit the Botanical Garden (Moscow): “How to get to the place from Dmitrovskoye or Altufevskoye highway, and which route is better to choose?” passes through the Otradnoye district up to the territory of the GBS. If you drive along Dmitrovskoye Highway, you will need to get to the intersection with Bolshaya Akademicheskaya Street.

Public transport routes from VDNH metro station

Of course, the Vladykino metro station is not the only one from where you can take a bus and go to the Botanical Garden (Moscow). How to get to the place by getting off at the VDNH metro station? Bus routes 24, 85 and 803 run throughout the country, as well as trolleybuses 9, 36 and 73.

How much are entrance tickets?

Children under 7 years old accompanied by adults, as well as pensioners, can enjoy free entry to the territory. For all other categories of the population, the entrance fee is:

• For adults - 50 rubles
• For students and schoolchildren - 30 rubles.

As you can see, the entrance fee is purely symbolic. Next we follow the most popular exhibitions. Entrance to the rose garden and the exhibition of decorative flowers costs 100 rubles per adult. Discounts are available for children and pensioners. Adult tickets to view the unique exhibition "Japanese Garden" on weekdays cost 150 rubles (due to shortened opening hours), on weekends and holidays - 200 rubles. Now we have found out, having decided to explore the Botanical Garden (Moscow), how to get to it, and how much entrance tickets cost. All that remains is to decide which exposure to start the inspection with.

Anniversary of the Botanical Garden

In 2015, GBS celebrates its 70th anniversary. For this significant event, it is planned to open the huge glass building of the New Orangery. The entire surrounding area is cleaned and landscaped daily. And now we can safely say that the celebrations will take place in conditions of ideal order and beauty. Since the opening took place at the end of the Great Patriotic War, much attention is paid to exhibits imported from Germany, which can be viewed in the Stock Greenhouse.

Best exposures

We have already learned a lot about the Botanical Garden of Expositions and briefly covered the history of its creation. The real gem of the project is the rose garden. It is also worth noting the significance of two special exhibitions. We will talk about a collection of tropical plants and the “Japanese Garden”. No other botanical garden throughout Europe has such an extensive collection of coastal plants. These include wild, cultivated and flowering specimens. If you have a great desire to admire the blooming sakura, brought to the Botanical Garden (Moscow) many years ago, reviews of which are spreading everywhere, welcome to the Japanese Garden. People who once saw this miracle will never forget it. Delicate fragrant flowering trees create a unique atmosphere of peace and tranquility. Orchids, bonsai, and miniature trees miraculously transport visitors far to the East, to the Land of the Rising Sun.

Rose garden

If we talk about the rose garden, it’s worth starting with the history of the exhibition. Back in the middle of the last century, the scientific breeder Ivan Shtanko developed amazing varieties of roses that instantly became popular even abroad. To this day, the varieties Aurora, Yasnaya Polyana and Morning of Moscow are extremely popular outside Russia. The total area occupied by the rose garden is 2.5 hectares. In total, more than 270 different varieties of prickly beauty grow on the territory of the GBS. If we measure the number in the bushes, the figure will be about 6,000 units. Over the long history of the exhibition, the best varieties of roses from all over the world have been collected here. Many foreign rose growing companies consider it an honor to collaborate with such a well-known organization as the Botanical Garden (Moscow). Throughout the years of its existence, the GBS address has more than once become the destination for considerable free gifts from partners.

To complete the picture, there are numerous ponds and reservoirs on the territory, framed by centuries-old oak trees. There is an exhibition called “Natural Flora”, which includes trees and shrubs from different regions of the country. These include:

• Plantings
• Types of forests in Siberia.
• Representatives of cultures of the Far Eastern forest.
• Seedlings imported from Central Asia.
• Caucasian plantings.

Visitors, walking around the territory, can get acquainted with the standard of landscape design of the 50s of the last century, which is presented in the exhibition “Garden of Continuous Flowering”.

In conclusion, I would like to wish you aesthetic pleasure and unforgettable moments of unity with nature, which the Botanical Garden (Moscow) can give its guests. Now everyone knows how to get to the selection paradise.

C Nikolai Vasilievich Icin - Soviet botanist and breeder, academician of the All-Russian Academy of Agricultural Sciences, director of the Main Botanical Garden of the USSR Academy of Sciences.

Born on December 6 (18), 1898 in Saratov in a peasant family. Russian. Graduated from primary school. As a teenager he worked at a factory in Saratov.

During the Civil War he was a military commissar, participated in the defense of Tsaritsyn and battles on the Southern Front, and defended the Soviet Republic.

After the war, he graduated from the workers' faculty at the university in Saratov. In 1923-27 he studied at the Saratov Institute of Agriculture and Land Reclamation.

After graduating from the institute in 1927-32, he worked at the All-Union Scientific Research Institute of Grain Farming of the South-East as a researcher. On the fields of this institute (Saratov Agricultural Experimental Station) and, at the same time, being an agronomist of one of the departments of the grain state farm "Giant" in the Salsky district of the Rostov region, N.V. Tsitsin began to conduct experiments that subsequently led him to brilliant results.

From the very beginning, N.V. Tsitsin was interested in the problem of creating more productive varieties of the main food crop - wheat - based on distant hybridization. He crossed wheat with wheatgrass and became the first wheat-wheatgrass hybrid. He widely involved in crossing wild and cultivated plants that had gone through independent evolutionary paths that determined their genetic isolation. Research conducted by the scientist in this direction has made it possible to create new plant varieties.

From 1932, N.V. Tsitsin worked as the head of the laboratory of wheat-wheatgrass hybrids at the Omsk Zonal Experimental Station, which was later reorganized into the Siberian Research Institute of Grain Farming (in 1936-38 - director of the institute). Doctor of Agricultural Sciences (1936). Here the scientist created mid-early (with a shorter growing season) varieties of wheat-wheatgrass hybrids, characterized by high yields and a complex of other economically valuable traits. At the same time, new varieties of wheat were created that had a branched ear structure. Before this, only forms of spring durum wheat existed in nature. The scientist managed to create varieties of winter soft branched wheat, that is, forms that previously did not exist in nature at all. One of Tsitsin's pioneering works was the creation of multigrain forms of wheat with particularly high productivity.

In 1938-49 and 1954-57, N.V. Tsitsin was the director of the All-Union Agricultural Exhibition in Moscow (VSKHV); in 1938-48 - Chairman of the State Commission for Variety Testing of Grains, Oilseeds and Herbs; in 1940-49 - director of the Research Institute of Grain Farming in the Non-Black Earth Zone of the USSR; in 1940-57 - head of the laboratory of remote hybridization of the USSR Academy of Sciences. In 1938-48 - vice-president of VASKhNIL. Member of the CPSU(b) since 1938.

In the post-war years, N.V. Tsitsin created intermediate constant (stable in offspring) forms of wheat, which had a high protein content and competed in yield with the best standards of this crop. For the first time in the history of breeding and genetic science, he created a completely new species of wheat plant, which is of great scientific and practical importance - perennial wheat, which he named Triticum agropynotriticum. Tsitsin’s work on the creation of high-yielding lodging-resistant varieties and forms with shortened and filled straw was also of great practical importance.

The scientist and his collaborators successfully used polyploid forms of plants (containing several sets of chromosomes in cells) in breeding. In particular, a tetraploid variety of winter rye “Start” was created, which had high winter hardiness and productivity. Particularly interesting is the work of Tsitsin and his students on the hybridization of wheat, rye and barley with elymus (giant, sandy and soft). Based on 29 combinations of crossing soft and durum wheat with three types of elimus, 7 generations of wheat-elimus hybrids were obtained. In 1968–1969, in the process of hybridization of wheat with soft elymus, highly productive constant 42-chromosome hybrids were isolated for the first time. They were distinguished by their large ears and grains, containing over 20% protein and more than 40% gluten.

In 1945-80, N.V. Tsitsin was the director of the Main Botanical Garden of the USSR Academy of Sciences (GBG), organized with his participation, chairman of the Council of Botanical Gardens of the USSR (1953–1980), academician-secretary of the Department of Plant Growing and Selection of the All-Russian Academy of Agricultural Sciences (1966–1968), President (1969–1975), Vice President (1975–1980) of the International Association of Botanical Gardens.

Under the leadership of N.V. Tsitsin, all landscape and construction work for the development of VSKhV-VDNKh and GBS took place. He was the initiator of organizing expeditions around the country to collect plants for the botanical garden. Since 1947, Tsitsin collected a scientific library, which already in 1952 contained 55 thousand books, including rare copies of the 16th-19th centuries in Russian and foreign languages. Since 1948, Tsitsin began publishing the “Bulletin of the Main Botanical Garden”. Of the 200 bulletins issued from 1 to 120, he was the responsible editor. Under his leadership, an arboretum, one of the largest in Europe, was created on 75 hectares. During its existence, 2,500 species of woody plants were tested there. Of these, 1,800 were selected as completely sustainable, and of these, in turn, about 600 were recommended for landscaping in Moscow.

In 1952, on the initiative of N.V. Tsitsin, a network of botanical gardens of the USSR was created, and the Main Botanical Garden of the Academy of Sciences became a kind of national coordinating and methodological center. The same year the greenhouse opened. By 1953, Tsitsin had completely completed the exhibition of the flora department, and by 1954, on the day of the second birth of VSKhV-VDNKh, the garden of continuous flowering, the garden of coastal plants and the collection rose garden were finally completed. In the village of Snegiri, Istrinsky district, Moscow region, Tsitsin organized an experimental garden farming on almost 1.5 thousand hectares.

On July 28, 1959, the Botanical Garden was opened to visitors. By the 70s, all the main exhibitions of the garden were finally completed, and collection areas of geographical landscapes were created in the flora department. The garden under the leadership of N.V. Tsitsin became one of the largest in Europe. His collections included more than 20 thousand plant taxa (about 17 thousand were exhibited).

U By the order of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR on December 17, 1968, for great services in the development of biological and agricultural sciences and in connection with the 70th anniversary of his birth, Nikolai Vasilyevich Tsitsin was awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor with the presentation of the Order of Lenin and the Hammer and Sickle gold medal.

U by the Kazakh Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR on December 15, 1978, for great services in the development of biological and agricultural sciences and in connection with the 80th anniversary of his birth, Tsitsin Nikolai Vasilyevich was awarded the Order of Lenin and the second gold medal “Hammer and Sickle”.

Delegate to the XX Congress of the CPSU. Deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of the 1st, 3rd and 4th convocations.

N.V. Tsitsin is an honorary foreign member of 8 foreign academies. He was president, chairman, and member of a number of domestic and foreign scientific organizations. President (1958-1970) and vice-president (since 1970) of the Soviet-Indian Society for Friendship and Cultural Relations. More than 700 scientific works have been published, including 46 books and brochures. Has 8 copyright certificates for inventions. Many works have been published abroad.

Awarded 7 Orders of Lenin (1935, 08.1945, 09.1945, 1953, 1968, 1975, 1978), Orders of the October Revolution (1973), Red Banner of Labor (1939), medals, gold medal named after I.V. Michurin, French Order of Merit in the field of agriculture” (1959). Laureate of the Lenin (1978) and State (1943) prizes of the USSR.

Essays:
Distant hybridization of plants, M., 1954;
The problem of winter and perennial wheat, M., 1935;
What will cross wheat with wheatgrass yield? M., 1937;
Research in the field of vegetative-sexual hybridization of herbaceous plants with woody ones, "Proceedings of the Zonal Institute of Grain Farming of the Non-Black Earth Strip of the USSR", 1946;
Ways to create new cultivated plants, M., 1948;
The role of science and advanced practice in the rise of grain farming, M., 1954;
Perennial wheat, M., 1978;
Theory and practice of remote hybridization, M., 1981.