St Andrews Botanic Garden
botanical garden in Fife, Scotland, UK
The St Andrews Botanic Garden is an 18-acre botanical garden in the university town of St Andrews in Fife, Scotland. It is located on the banks of the wooded Kinness Burn in the Canongate area, on the southern edge of the town. The gardens are supported by the University of St Andrews and Fife Council, and by admission charges. The garden is included on the Inventory of Gardens and Designed Landscapes in Scotland.
Collections
It contains several thousand species of native and non-native plants. These are laid out in zones of woodland, meadow, herbaceous beds, sand dunes, a large rockery and a series of ponds.
There are borders that specialise in Chinese and Chilean flora, containing both woody and herbaceous specimens.to recreate the full environment of those parts of the world.
There are significant collections of Cotoneaster, Berberis and Sorbus.
The gardens also house an algal herbarium based on the collection of seaweed specimens gathered originally by the phycologist Margaret Gatty (1809-1873) and enlarged since her death.
History
The gardens were founded by the University of St Andrews in 1889 on a different site within the grounds of St Mary's College.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “St Andrews Botanic Garden” as botanical garden in Fife, Scotland, UK. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the science & nature register because the source frames it as botanical garden in Fife, Scotland, UK. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Stable identifiers, scientific names and standards terminology offer the best bridge between this overview and specialist evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 20, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q54869772. Authority coordinates are 56.335, -2.806. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1809, 1873 and 1889.
A general summary may omit uncertainty, sample limits or methodological disagreement that is explicit in the technical record. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Check terminology, classification and the date of the cited evidence. Scientific names and technical consensus can change while older records retain historical value.
- Current terminology
- Classification context
- Finding cited technical literature
Primary datasets, specimen catalogues, standards bodies and the most recent peer-reviewed literature.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “St Andrews Botanic Garden”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow St Andrews Botanic Garden primary sources, St Andrews Botanic Garden archive and Andrews research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “St Andrews Botanic Garden”?
- Is the terminology current, historical or disputed?
- Which observation, specimen, dataset or publication supports the account?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “St Andrews Botanic Garden” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.