Greenhouses of the Jardin botanique Henri Gaussen

The garden descends from the garden of Toulouse's Academy of Sciences. When learned societies were suppressed during the Revolution, the naturalist Philippe Picot de Lapeyrouse (1744-1818) moved the plants in 1796 to the grounds of the Discalced Carmelite monastery. The garden was linked to the Faculty of Sciences from 1809 and was first arranged in "schools": medicinal, industrial and fodder plants. Wikipedia states that it once held more than 5,000 regional, Pyrenean and exotic species.

It was officially separated from the Jardin des plantes in 1886, then passed to university management in 1956. The phytogeographer Henri Gaussen directed it from 1948 to 1958 and gave it his name in 1991. Closed in 1997 during the renovation of the Toulouse Museum, it reopened to the public in February 2008, with an ethnobotanical spiral and several greenhouses. The sources consulted give neither the construction date of these greenhouses nor their designer, and so allow nothing more to be said about their origin.

According to English Wikipedia the garden has six greenhouses covering about 450 m² in total; another source gives 300 m², a figure that could not be reconciled with the first. The sources mostly document the environments recreated rather than the structure of the buildings: construction date, architect and materials are not stated.

Three main themes are presented. The humid tropical house recreates a dense forest, presented as a South-East Asian rainforest. The dry tropical house shows how xerophilic, succulent and cactiform plants cope with aridity. A house of carnivorous plants illustrates how some species make up for poor soil by capturing insects. The group stands in a garden beside the Museum, and visitors enter through the museum building.

According to English Wikipedia, the greenhouses hold about 145 species of tropical plants, 300 species of epiphytes, 730 species of succulents and 90 species of carnivorous plants. These figures come from a count reported by a single source.

The garden as a whole grows about 2,500 taxa according to English Wikipedia, and nearly 3,000 species according to an article by Sciences en Occitanie. It includes ethnobotanical collections (medicinal, industrial and edible plants) and a set of 840 toxic species. The garden also preserves the scientific legacy of Henri Gaussen, whose 4,500 photographic plates and 35,000 slides document the flora of the Pyrenees.

The botanical garden lies in the Busca district, in central Toulouse, on allées Jules-Guesde, and is visited through the Natural History Museum, so that the two visits can easily be combined. About an hour is enough for the greenhouses and the ethnobotanical spiral. The humid tropical house offers a warm stop in winter; the open-air ethnobotanical spiral is better walked in mild weather. The garden belongs to Université Toulouse III - Paul Sabatier.