Why are collections of the ornamental plants needed in botanical gardens?

Abstract

Collections of ornamental plants in many Botanical Gardens of the world are absent, and individual forms and varieties are used for decoration of territories. How did it happen that ornamental plants began to appear in domestic Botanical Gardens? To answer this difficult question, you can analyze the history of the appearance of ornamental plants in the oldest botanical garden in Russia - the Botanical Garden of the Moscow State University. The composition of the collections of ornamental plants throughout the period from the time of the bookmarking of the Garden has changed many times. Last but not least, this was due to personalities, state assignments or scientific topics of research, as well as the need to have extended collections of both species and plant varieties. At present, collections of ornamental plants become vulnerable and even superfluous. The question arises, why do we need ornamental plants? There is still no answer to this question, although there is no grant support for applied research, there are no specialized journals, there is no collection financing.