Hortus Botanicus Amsterdam
A botanical garden of 1638 whose coffee plant seedlings went on to found the coffee industry of the Americas.
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The Hortus was founded in 1638 as a physic garden for the city's doctors and apothecaries and is one of the oldest botanical gardens in the world. Its consequential episode is a plant: the Dutch East India Company brought coffee from Yemen via Java, and a seedling raised here was given to Louis XIV in 1714; a cutting from that plant was taken to Martinique in the 1720s and from it, by most accounts, descend a very large proportion of the coffee trees of Central and South America - so a single plant in this garden stands behind an industry. The garden holds about four thousand species on one and a half hectares, including a three-hundred-year-old cycad, an 1875 palm house, a butterfly house and a three-climate glasshouse. It sits beside the Artis zoo and the old Jewish quarter, and it is small, dense and quiet.
What you actually see
- A physic garden of 1638 - among the oldest botanical gardens in the world.
- The coffee seedling story - the plant from which much of American coffee descends.
- A three-hundred-year-old cycad - among the oldest potted plants anywhere.
- An 1875 palm house - with a three-climate glasshouse alongside.
When to go
April to October. Half a day.
Honest expectations
It is small - one and a half hectares, and two hours covers it. Glasshouses are hot and humid. Busy at weekends. The coffee genealogy is the standard account and is debated in detail by historians.
Nearby
Artis zoo is next door; the Portuguese Synagogue is a short walk.
What to pack for Hortus Botanicus Amsterdam
Chosen from what this place is for. Tap a kit for the full checklist.
Opening times, ticket prices and seasonal closures change - check the official source before you go: official site.