Kharkiv Botanical Garden

Kharkiv, Kharkiv Oblast, Ukraine, Ukraine

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Kharkiv Botanical Garden, formally the botanical garden of V.N. Karazin Kharkiv National University, is regarded as the oldest botanical garden in Ukraine, with origins dating back to 1804 alongside the founding of the university.

It occupies roughly 42 hectares in central Kharkiv, split between an older campus section on Klochkivska Street and a larger area bordering the Sarzhyn Yar ravine, and serves both as an educational and research facility and as a public green space for walks and relaxation. The garden holds a living collection of more than 7,000 plant species, including many rare and endangered taxa, with around a hundred species listed in the Red Book of Ukraine and additional species protected at the European level.

Its arboretum and outdoor expositions display woody and herbaceous plants arranged by botanical–geographical regions such as Europe, Siberia, the Mediterranean, East Asia, North America and local northeastern Ukraine, helping visitors understand global and regional flora patterns. A greenhouse complex supports extensive tropical and subtropical collections, including large groups of bromeliads, aroids, succulents and orchids, which make the garden an important center for ex situ conservation and botany teaching despite recent challenges related to war conditions.