More than a postcard of the city, or a place for leisure and recreation, is a research center for the flora of Paraná, contributing to environmental education, preservation and conservation of nature.
Like all botanical gardens, the curitiban has a great variety of plants and also has the objective of cultivate them, protect them, study them and reproduce them.
In 2008, another greenhouse was built to research, shelter and reproduction of Brazilian living plants - and in danger of extinction - and Brazilian native ornamental plants. In contrast to main greenhouse, this is not open to the public; it serves to scientific research and is home to rare plants to prevent disappearance of nature. It is made of polycarbonate and has internal system of irrigation and temperature control.
In order to appreciate the native plants, in 2007, the Garden of Native Plants of Curitiba was created; every plant in the garden is native, even the grass. Because it has no exotic plants, the garden attracts lots of butterflies and other pollinating insects
In the past, the Atlantic Forest was the second largest forest in Brazil; currently there is less than 5% of forest in the country.
This is the native vegetation of Curitiba. The araucaria moist forests are a subtropical moist forest ecoregion of southern Brazil, and is now one of the most endangered biomas of the world; corresponds to approximately 40% of the vegetation of the "Jardim Botânico de Curitiba". The park was created in order to protect this biodiversity.
Next to one of the lakes, 200 seedlings of trees and shrubs native of the Serra do Mar of Paraná were planted; the Mountain Range of the Sea () is a 1,500 km long system of mountain ranges and escarpments in Southeastern Brazil, which runs in parallel to the Atlantic Ocean coast. Some planted species were cultivated on the coast of Paraná and then transplanted into the garden of plants of the Serra do Mar.
Every year, in July, the prunus serrulata blossoms; there are about 30 trees, planted in a path that connects the parking to the portal of entrance of the park.
In the capital city of Parana, the first seedlings were taken by Japanese immigrants in the first half of the 20th century, but began to be planted in large quantities from the 1990s, with the opening of the Botanical Garden. Now the seedlings are produced by the city and used in afforestation of streets and squares.
Opened in 2008, the "Jardim das Sensações" is a track of 200 meters long where visitors walk blindfolded (without the vision) to know some plants and natural landscapes using the other senses. More than 70 plant species with smells, textures, shapes and sizes fill the course of the Garden.
Occupies an area of 2381 meters square surrounded by trees that help to isolate external noise and, to guarantee the surprise, it is hidden by a fence of bamboo. All elements of the track are identified in Braille, the language made with points in high relief used by blind persons. The space is free and monitored, where small groups are organized to make the experience (that can walk the path with or without the blindfold). Receives approximately 5,000 visitors per week.
The Museu Botânico de Curitiba ("Botanical Museum of Curitiba") is inside the Botanical Garden of the city; has ample space for exhibitions, library and auditorium. Was founded in 1965, when the botanical Gerdt Günther Hatschbach donated his private collection to the municipality of Curitiba. Today, the collection is the fourth largest in Brazil, with more than 333,000 specimens.
The Museum has developed an exchange program for botanical material, and exchanges material with 207 institutions worldwide (53 in Brazil, 154 in other places). Due to this program, around 90% of the collection has been identified by specialists; it makes the Botanical Museum of Curitiba an international reference for botanical material - receives annually an average of 400 research scientist visitors, and includes specialists and graduate students.
Each year, the collection increases by approximately 15,000 specimens.
Amor Materno ("Maternal Love") - Sculpture of Polish artist João Zaco Paraná (stage name of Jan Żak) (1884-1961), cast in bronze and placed in a fountain. This sculpture was made in 1907 (in the same year, the Polish-Brazilian artist won the special prize of the "Hall of Fine Arts in Brussels"), and was donated by the Polish colony of Brazil to honor all paranaense mothers in the celebration of 300th anniversary of the city in 1993.
Zaco Paraná immigrated with his parents to Brazil in 1896; was the author of many monuments, statues, sculptures, etc. in several Brazilian states and around the world.
Torso do Trabalhador ("Worker's Trunk") - Sculpture of paranaense artist Erbo Stenzel (1911-1980), cast in bronze and placed inside the glasshouse, in a fountain. This sculpture was made in 1941 and was placed in 1994 to honor all the workers of the world, when Curitiba hosted the "World Habitat Day" in 1995 - an event celebrated by UN to make reflection on the situation of cities and the human right to adequate housing, as well remind the world of its collective responsibility for the habitat for future generations.
Erbo Stenzel was born in Parana State, descendant of Germans and Austrians; held many monuments and sculptures of political personalities of the state and about local culture.
The "Frans Krajcberg Cultural Space" is behind the main greenhouse. Originally opened to be a orchidary, received the artworks in 2003, including 110 large sculptures (all made from the remains of burned or illegally cut down trees), reliefs, photographs, videos and texts. The name "The Revolt" expresses the artist's feeling about the complete destruction caused by man in the Brazilian forests. There is also an exhibit of photos taken by the sculptor and selling books related to the artist. The main purpose of the space is, according to Krajcberg, environmental awareness. All works were donated by the artist.
Krajcberg was born in 1921, in Poland. Son of a Jewish family who disappeared in 1945 (in the Holocaust), left for Brazil in 1948 and became a naturalized Brazilian years later. Received many awards around the world, and other "Frans Krajcberg Cultural Space" - but in Paris. But in Curitiba Botanic Garden was the first place in the world that was specifically designed to house his works. The gallery receives about 60,000 visitors each year.
The new Botanical Garden was part of many other creations of Mayor Jaime Lerner, who at time had created the slogan for the city "The Ecological Capital of Brazil". It quickly became an icon of the city, and the image of the main greenhouse is the most landmark used in advertising about the city, becoming the unofficial symbol of Curitiba and of all the South region of Brazil.
The city of Concórdia, in Santa Catarina state, built a mall inspired in the greenhouse of the Botanical Garden; another construction evidently inspired is the Shopping Pátio Higienópolis, in São Paulo City. The logo for the candidacy of Curitiba as the host city of the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil was also inspired in the park's glasshouse.