Conservatoire botanique national de Mascarin


The Conservatoire botanique national de Mascarin is a national conservatory and botanical garden located at 2, rue du Père Georges, Colimaçons, Saint-Leu, Réunion, France. It is open daily except Monday; an admission fee is charged.
The conservatory was established in 1986 as the Conservatoire et Jardin Botanique de Mascarin on farmland belonging to the family of the Marquis Antoine Sosthène Armand de Châteauvieux, at an elevation of 500 meters on the leeward side of La Réunion. In 1993 it was given its current name as it became one of France's eight Conservatoires Botaniques Nationaux. In 1996 its mission changed focus from conservation within its gardens, and the cultivation and the propagation of rare and threatened plants endemic to La Réunion, to a primary emphasis on management and monitoring of species in their natural habitats.
The conservatory's ongoing projects include establishing plots in mid-elevation wet forests for long-term study of plant diversity and vegetation dynamics; field surveys to determine locations for rare endemics contains about 4,000 plant species endemic to the Mascarene Islands, i.e., including Madagascar, Mauritius, and Rodrigues, as well as Réunion itself. It is organized into seven sections as follows: