O.V. Fomin Botanical Garden - Kyiv
O.V. Fomin Botanical Garden
In this virtual excursion, you are given the opportunity to travel to heart of Ukraine — the capital Kyiv. You can learn more about the O.V. Fomin Botanical Garden of Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv: its history, modern state and live plant collections.
O.V. Fomin Botanical Garden is a scientific educational and nature conservation institution that aims to preserve, study and enrich the region's plant resources with species of local and world flora by creating, replenishing and preserving botanical collections. It is also a park-monument of landscape art of national importance.
The Garden is famous for its exotic plants: it has the biggest collection of succulents among the countries of the former Soviet Union. The greenhouse, which was built for the largest and the oldest palm trees in Northern Eurasia, is among the highest in the world (middle picture above). At different times, such famous scientists as Ernst-Rudolf Trautfetter, Johann Heinrich Hochgut, Alexander Fomin, Sergei Navashin, Mykola Kholodny, Dmitry Zerov and others worked here.
The Botanical Garden consists of two parts: public park and scientific collections. It also includes a botanical museum, established in 1934. Today, its collections include over 20,000 herbarium samples and the expositions present more than 2,000 natural samples of vascular and non-vascular plants. The museum also exhibits scientific works, herbal preparations, herbarium samples and other items used by Sergei Navashin. Simultaneously with the founding of the Botanical Garden, a scientific library was established, the collections of which now include over 40,000 books and journals on botany and other areas of biology.
We invite you to learn more about the different areas of the Botanical Garden and, without leaving your home, immerse yourself in its fascinating natural atmosphere.
Images, Contributors & Sources
The photographs used in this digital excursion were personally taken with a camera by Mariia Bukhtiiarova who lives in Kyiv. The images serve as original visual material for this digital excursion to the Kyiv Botanical Garden.
- Photographic documentation: Mariia Bukhtiiarova
- Text and content: Mariia Bukhtiiarova, Olena Vasheka
- Technical implementation on the ILIAS platform: Paul Sattlegger
- Project coordination: Pascal Mende
- The project was carried out at the Institute of Botany, Department of Sulphur Metabolism and Abiotic Stress in Plants on behalf of Prof. Dr. Jutta Papenbrock and Prof. Olena Vasheka from the Institute of Biology and Medicine, Kyiv.
Other images, materials or sources used are indicated directly on the relevant page.
Mariia Bukhtiiarova
During the summer of 2025, Mariia joined the Institute of Botany at Leibniz University Hannover as part of the Eastern Partnerships programme. What began as a laboratory internship soon sparked a creative idea: a digital excursion of the Botanical Garden in Kyiv. Since returning home, Mariia has continued to develop this project, turning it into the experience you see today.
Below you will find links to Mariia's work as well as to previous stays carried out within the framework of the Eastern Partnerships between the Institute of Botany and the University of Kyiv:
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A.V._Fomin_Botanical_Garden
- https://uk.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ботанічний_сад_імені_академіка_Олександра_Фоміна
- https://biomed.knu.ua/
License & Attribution
This excursion by the AG Papenbrock (Institute of Botany) is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. You may freely use, share and adapt the materials, provided that you credit us as the source and link back to this page. If you adapt the material and share it, your version must be released under the same license. Commercial use without prior arrangement is not permitted – for this, please contact us directly at jutta.papenbrock@botanik.uni-hannover.de.
Example attribution:
„O.V. Fomin Botanical Garden“, AG Papenbrock (Institute of Botany), Jutta Papenbrock and Pascal Mende, licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 – https://ilias.uni-hannover.de/ilias.php?baseClass=ilrepositorygui&cmdNode=zp:na&cmdClass=ilObjCategoryGUI&ref_id=222598
License link: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/deed.de