Tel Aviv University's Botanic Gardens are a center of natural beauty, learning and research that serves not only the university, but the community at large.The Botanic Gardens are an integral part of the Department of Plant Sciences of the George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences, and their facilities are used by faculty and students for instruction and research.
As an educational center, the Gardens annually serve thousands of schoolchildren, teachers, scholars, and amateur naturalists from Israel and abroad. Members of the public visit the Gardens in increasing numbers, finding them a source of tranquillity and enjoyment.
There is much to see. The Noah Naftulsky Ecological Garden features the dominant species found in Israel's five phytogeographic regions - the Mediterranean, Saharo-Arabian (desert); Irano-Turanian (steppe); Sudanian (tropical); and Euro-Siberian. Here, the amazing variety of Israel plant life is reproduced on a small scale.
A number of specialized gardens, such as that for economic and medicinal plants or that for endangered species, have been establised, as well as a carefully planned Garden for the Blind.
The Daphna Carasso Garden of Tropical Plants takes the visitor into the steamy exhuberance of the Amazon rain forest and the sultry jungles of Africa and Southeast Asia. Giant bird of paradise plants soar into the air, and delicate Australian tree ferns dip low over the paths. Orchids blaze with color; sharp-toothed carnivorous species lie in wait for passing insects. Coffee, vanilla and cacao flourish in a carefully controlled environment that duplicates the conditions of the tropics.
A unique feature of the Gardens is the Sarah Racine Root Laboratory, especially designed to study the structure, physiology and reactions to various effects of roots and root systems.
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