Description of the attraction
In the distant past, in the summer of 1931, a young geobotanist Nikolai Alexandrovich Avrorin came from Leningrad to the Murmansk region to continue the research begun by Professor Sergei Sergeevich Ganeshin, who died in the Khibiny. Nikolai Alexandrovich was going to stay here for only one summer season, but remained in these northern regions for 29 years.
In August of the same year, Avrorin presented to a group of scientists of the Kola branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences for discussion a thin booklet with 19 pages in it, on which the project "Polar-Alpine Botanical Garden in the Khibiny" was presented. This project was supported by prominent scientists and approved by the local authorities. In October, the Presidium of the USSR Academy of Sciences made the appropriate decision, and Nikolai Aleksandrovich was appointed director of the Garden.
Almost until the end of the 90s, the Polar-Alpine Botanical Garden in the Khibiny was the only one in the world located beyond the Arctic Circle.
Initially, the Polar-Alpine Botanical Garden was allocated an area of about 500 hectares, today it is 1670 hectares, 80 of which is a park with greenhouses, nurseries and other expositions. Together with Avrorin, young specialists, former students of Leningrad University, who successfully graduated from it, began to work in 1932.
In the summer of 1932, unique collections of living plants PABSI were formed. The first samples were donated by the Botanical Institute of the Academy of Sciences and included representatives of 26 varieties of shrubs and more than 50 varieties of herbs. At first, the samples were planted in small areas, which they managed to recapture from the forest. Nurseries are created by the hard and hard work of the first employees, and a network of trails is laid.
In the pre-war years, the Garden became famous and recognized. There are many academicians and famous scientists among its visitors. During the difficult years of the war, the Garden continues to work. All his activities at this time are aimed at the needs of the front. In the chemical laboratory of the Garden, technologies are being developed for processing local berries into syrups, juices, and jam without the use of sugar. A method for obtaining glucose syrup from lichens has been developed. Despite the hardships of wartime, the collection and herbarium were completely preserved by the staff of the Garden.
In 1946, the government provided financial and personnel support to PABSI, in this regard, the research topics expanded significantly, the number of the team increased, and the number of specialists was replenished. The status of an institute, which is part of the Kola branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences, was assigned to Sad in 1967.
In 1981, to the 50th anniversary of its foundation, the Polar-Alpine Botanical Garden-Institute was awarded the Order of the Badge of Honor for all the merits. On the occasion of its 70th anniversary, it is named after its founder N. A. Avrorina.
Many thousands of tourists visit the Garden every year. In this place, you can get acquainted with representatives of the flora of different countries, with the specifics of their growth and development in unusual conditions, where frosts and snowfalls are likely in summer. Special expositions and nurseries present unique collections of plants ("Rocky Garden", "Garden of Snowdrops", "Live Herbarium"). Tourists arriving from the most distant regions of Russia or even foreign countries meet here with plants that grow in their homeland.
Also, the Botanical Garden invites visitors to make excursions to the greenhouse of plants growing in the tropics and subtropics, to the museum of the history and formation of the botanical garden. An excursion along an ecological trail will acquaint tourists with the vegetation of various high-altitude zones of the Khibiny Mountains.
