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Among Nalchik's parks, the Botanical Garden occupies a special place. Kabardino-Balkaria, a relatively small republic, is home to almost half of all the plants in the North Caucasus. Nalchik is surrounded by chalk mountains of an ancient sea, creating a unique microclimate where subtropical, temperate, and northern flora coexist harmoniously. Furthermore, there are many relics and plants native to this area. The Botanical Garden's collection contains nearly a thousand plant species, 55 of which are listed in the Red Data Book of the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic and the Red Data Book of the Russian Federation.
Not long ago the garden celebrated its 70th anniversary. In the 1960s, a lot of work was done here to acclimatize plants from different parts of the globe. Today the garden is under the jurisdiction of the Kabardino-Balkarian State University named after Kh. M. Berbekov. More than 105 plant species are presented in the greenhouses. Here you can see a living fossil - metasequoia, a coniferous tree from the forests of the Cretaceous period, which sheds not only leaves-needles, but also entire branches in winter, arranging a "branch fall". No fewer curiosities grow in the open air. For example, the imperial tree - paulownia tomentosa, the fluffy wig tree - smoke tree, laburnum with the poetic name “Golden Rain” and Chinese date jujube.
The Botanical Garden is especially famous for its collection of conifers – there are hundreds of varieties here: Crimean pine; the conical Canadian spruce "konika" and the nest-shaped spruce, which grows not in height, but in width; conifers of variegated colors. There are all kinds of thujas here alone: eastern, thread-like, spherical, and heather-like... Once upon a time, it was in Nalchik that the famous botanist Ivan Kovtunenko, after several years of hard work, developed a technology for growing blue spruce from seeds. It was from the Nalchik nursery that these blue beauties spread throughout the country. Today, in the Botanical Garden's greenhouse, you can see small fir trees of a wide variety of shades – they are propagated by cuttings and grafting.
We also recommend visiting Atazhukinsky Garden and Zoo, the temples and squares of Nalchik and the picturesque outskirts of the Kabardino-Balkarian capital.
