W. J. Beal Botanical Garden

Infobox University campus
university = Michigan State University
color = #afddaf
name = W. J. Beal Botanical Garden
picture = MSU Beal Garden map.png pic_caption = Beal Garden's location on campus.
use = Botanical garden
style = N/A (Outdoors)
erected = 1872
demolished = N/A (Extant) | location = "Sleepy Hollow" ravine
campus = main
namesake = William J. Beal
architect = Wiliam J. Beal
free_label = Number of species
free = 5000
website = [http://www.cpp.msu.edu/beal/ Official website]

The W. J. Beal Botanical Garden (5 acres) is a botanical garden located on the campus of Michigan State University in East Lansing, Michigan. It is claimed to be the oldest continually-maintained university botanical garden in the United States, and is open to the public without charge year round during daylight hours.

The Garden currently displays over 2500 different plant taxa, comprising over 5,000 species, in economic, systematic, landscape and ecological groupings.

The Garden was started by Prof. William J. Beal in 1872 with a nursery, followed in the subsequent year by test plots of 140 species of forage grasses and clovers, and an arboretum in 1874 which began as two rows of swamp white oaks. The Gardens developed from these original starting points until 1950, when they were reorganized and redesigned by Prof. Milton Baron to form today's four main groupings. In 1954, the Garden began participating in the international seed exchange program, publishing its first Index Seminum, and in 1961 was extended with a collection of acidophilous plants including rhododendrons, azaleas, and ferns. More recently, a collection of Michigan's endangered plants was added in 1986, and the non-flowering vascular plant collection was started in 2001 with ephedras, conifers, ginkgo, cycads, ferns, horsetails and clubmosses.

See also

* List of botanical gardens in the United States

External links

* [http://www.cpp.msu.edu/beal/ Official website]
* [http://kevinforsyth.net/ELMI/beal.htm M.A.C. — Botanic Garden]