|  | The Cantonal Botanical Museum is not just a simple exhibition. It plays a major role in protecting the canton’s flora by listing its rare plants and threatened species. Its collections are open in situ at two botanical gardens, the first located in the city of Lausanne, on Montriond hill, and the second nestled in a small valley in the mountains, at Pont-de-Nant (1260 m). The Cantonal Botanical Gardens and Museum were established in 1824. Their mission is to conserve Vaud’s botanical collections, study them and publish the results of these studies, let the public learn about them and keep an updated inventory of the canton’s plant life. The collections fill 2000 metres of shelves and include ferns, flowering plants, algae, moss, lichen, fungi, seeds and pollen, along with portraits of historical botanists and herbaria, manuscripts and archives. The museum’s library contains roughly 35,000 titles and more than 800 specialist periodicals. Stroll about with your eyes peeled and your nose to the wind
The best way to get to know plant life is to stroll through nature and learn to see, smell and feel. In other words, leave the museum and visit Lausanne’s botanical garden, a hill covered in flowers and large trees, containing no less than 6000 plants from around the world, including alpine, medicinal, tropical and carnivorous plants. Or visit the Vallon de Nant nature reserve, above Bex, where the “La Thomasia” garden offers exceptional climatic conditions for alpine plants. |
