The Green time machine, a new Evolution garden
The new Evolution garden in the Utrecht University Botanic Gardens is unique. Here you will take a green time travel from the first plants, the algae, all the way to the flowering plants. Walk through 900 million years of plant evolution firsthand and discover how and when certain plants evolved and what significance it had for life on Earth.
The new Evolution garden is open to visitors, but sometimes partially inaccessible because of works.
Come and join the activities in June 2025, when the Evolution garden will officially be opened.
- Garden lab: de Green time machine (1, 8, 9, 15, 21, 22 and 29 June, in Dutch)
- Summer evenings in the Gardens (5, 12, 19 and 26 June)
- Camping the Evolution (14-15 June) register now!
- Join the expert: Come with the beekeeper ((4 and 15 June, in Dutch)
- Opening weekend Evolution garden (21 and 22 June)
The Evolution garden is the scientific heart of Utrecht University Botanic Gardens and tells the story of the evolutionary relationships of the plant kingdom, going back hundreds of millions of years
The unique aspect of the new Evolution garden is that the design is very easy for visitors to understand. At the starting square, you first discover what a plant actually is, which is not as obvious as it seems! You also learn what evolution really means. From there, you walk from Algae, the first plants, via Mosses, Lycopods, Ferns and Gymnosperms all the way to Angiosperms. Angiosperms represent the most diverse group and the current pinnacle of evolution. During evolution, plants encountered several essential changes, considered key moments.
Artistic perspective
At each key moment, such as the development of seeds, information signs have been placed. While wandering through the Evolution garden, you can learn a lot about plant evolution, but you can also simply enjoy the richness and beauty of the plant kingdom. At the key moments, you will also find artistic installations that visually clarify the evolutionary step in question. These installations have a certain dynamism in them, for example by changing perspective or by operating them. This is done in part to symbolise that evolution is always in motion.
Why a new Evolution garden?
An important reason for the construction of the new Evolution garden was the outdated biological foundation of the old one. Since 1998, there has been a revolution in understanding the phylogenetic tree of the plant kingdom. Molecular research into plant cell genetic material, such as chloroplast DNA, has clarified much about the relationships between different plant groups. These scientific discoveries have led to a revised classification of the plant kingdom. The new Evolution garden is based on these modern insights, now well-established and widely accepted.
To celebrate 385 years of science in Utrecht, a floating sustainable work of art arose in Utrecht's Catharijnesingel in 2021. This artwork now marks the starting point of the Evolution garden.