Průhonice Park

Pruhonice Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site is operated by the Institute of Botany of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic.  This landscape park occupies 250 hectares and houses an extraordinary collection of woody species both domestic and exotic.  The natural park was founded in 1885 by Count Silva-Tarouca.  He combined woody plants, groups of trees, and bushes with meadows, ponds, streams, and their dead meanders.  He used the spectrum of various woody plants in different seasons of the year with great skill.  The result of his lifelong hard work is an original masterpiece of garden landscape architecture that is of worldwide importance. The park has valuable dendrological importance with about 1,800 species of local and exotic plants.  In total, there are about 3,000 taxons including herbaceous plants.

Both groups of woody plants vary in their usage due to their different morphological structure, site requirements, and also by their aesthetical impression. Although evergreen trees are not so numerous in this particular collection, they noticeably influence the character of lots of park areas in Průhonice. From the dendrologic point of view, it is possible to admire plenty of beautiful old native woody plants such as oaks, pines, lindens and elms. The collection of exotic woody plants of the mild climate of the Northern hemisphere and the Mediterranean are especially rich here. They enable us to perceive not only their loveliness, but they also bring us knowledge about their character and the possibilities of growing them in our country.