Facilities Available
The Herbarium:
Herbarium is a place where dried plant specimens are stored. It was established in the year 1969 by Dr. V. N. Naik, the pioneer Taxonomist of this region. It was initiated with the flowering plants of Osmanabad district and later on collections from all over India have been incorporated. The Herbarium of the Department harbours almost each and every species from Marathwada region. At present it has more than 100000 specimens and 57 type specimens. It has collections from foreign countries either on donation or exchange basis, like Brazil, England, Germany, Switzerland, Denmark, Czech Republic, Slovak Republic, Austria, South Africa, The Netherlands etc. This is internationally recognized and its acronym is “BAMU”. It has special collection of Medicinal plants, Family Cyperaceae, Asteraceae, genus Chlorophytum, Alysicarpus, Terminalia, Tephrosia, etc. 57 new plants have been described by the scholars from this Herbarium. It is a comprehensive collection of plants and has developed as a centre of reference for taxonomists. The University has sanctioned a special grant of 6 lakh for the development and maintenance of herbarium which represents biodiversity. This is one of the largest Herbarium among Indian Universities.
Museum:
The museum is rather small but it is in budding stage. It harbours plant species of botanical importance. These plant specimens are kept in the museum for general observation as well as for class work material.
Botanic Garden:
The botanic garden forms an important part of the department covering an area about 40 acres.
The garden has a unique collection of 800 species brought and cultivated from all over the India. It included a collection of many rare and endangered species like Psilotum, Agathis etc. Botanically it is largest garden in Indian Universities and has been recognized by Botanical survey of India (BSI) and enlisted in the directory of Indian Botanic Gardens. It is useful for teaching and research in the department. It is divided in three parts viz.,
a)The departmental garden which harbours several tree, shrubs, gymnosperms and aquatics of botanical interest.
b)Formal garden or central oval is based on model of Vrindavan Garden Mysore. This basically is garden of Public Interest. However there is section of Plants with 15 species. Both these gardens are spread over 22 acres of land.
c)Important noteworthy features of the garden are:
- a) Tree 210 Species
- b) Palms 15 Species
- c) Gymonsperms 12 Species