Important plant groups

A number of plant groups in the Hortus are not an official specialization, but do receive a lot of attention.

• Herbs

  Herbs formed the essence of the the plant collection when the Hortus was founded in 1638 as the Hortus Medicus. Today, there is again a great deal of interest in medicinal plants. In the Snippendaal garden, you will see a number of herbs that are used by man for nutrition, pharmaceutics, fibres and pigments.
  
  

• Monumental trees

  More than 50 trees grow in the Hortus, right in the middle of Amsterdam. A number of them are very old or rare. The exceptional tree route highlights 24 of these monumental trees. A folder describing these unique trees is available at the entrance.
  
  

• Victoria

  A specimen of the giant water lily, Victoria amazonica, flowered for the first time in The Netherlands in 1859, in our Hortus. Since then, this enormous plant occupies a central position in the Hortus. Until 1968, there was even a separate Victoria greenhouse. The Victoria returned to the Hortus in 2002. This time, it was grown in a special heated outdoor pond.