It is difficult to be the main tourist attraction in the city's most famous carnival in the world in addition to Ipanema, Copacabana, or Christ the Redeemer but the Rio de Janeiro Botanical Garden is certainly an equally impressive attraction, although there is something less telling about it. The botanical garden of Rio de Janeiro is one of the largest tropical botanical gardens in the world, and it contains some of the rarest species of plants from Brazil and from other countries, as well as many species of tropical birds, fish and mammals. More precisely, on 54 hectares Jardim Botânica grows more than 7,000 species of tropical plants, some in the open, and some protected in greenhouses.
In addition to rich flora and fauna this garden is also an important archeological, historical and artistic center of the city. There is also a research center within the garden, and there is also the most complete library in the country specializing exclusively in botany that holds more than 32.000 books. Herbarium can also be found in the garden with about 330.000 reference samples. The most important and most famous part of the garden is Aleja Barbos Rodrigue, a 700 meter long path surrounded by 137 royal palms. All palms are the descendant of only one tree, Palma Mater that died in 1972 when was struck by a thunder.
The garden was founded by Dom Joao in 1808 later known as John VI, the King of Great Britain , Portugal, Brazil and Algarves. At the beginning, Jardim Botânico was a Domestic private garden where he intended to plant species such as cinnamon, pepper and nutmeg grown from Eastern India, but was already open to the public in 1822 and renamed the Royal Botanic Garden. When Brazil became a republic the garden was renamed, the word "royal" was renamed from 1996, the Garden became the Botanical Garden of the Rio de Janeiro Research Institute. Since then its mission is focused on conservation and scientific research of Brazilian herbal biodiversity as well as education and to help the local community and foreign visitors become aware of the beauty and fragility of the environment.
