Itabashi Botanical Garden

The Itabashi Botanical Garden (東京都板橋区立熱帯環境植物館, Tōkyō-to Itabashi Kuritsu Nettai Kankyō Shokubutsukan, 1,000 m²) is an indoor botanical garden located at 8-29-2 Takashimadaira, Itabashi, Tokyo, Japan. There is also an aquarium on site. It is open daily except Mondays. It was closed to start renovation work in September 2020 and reopened on April 20, 2021.

History

It is a facility that utilizes the residual heat from the Itabashi Garbage Disposal Plant, and was opened in September 1994 after renovating the existing greenhouse botanical garden. Around the same time as the opening, Itabashi Ward signed a "Joint Declaration of Friendship" with the government of Penang, Malaysia. 2005 saw the introduction of a designated manager system, and a joint venture of Seibu Landscaping, Yokohama Hakkeijima, and Seibu Greenery Management was entrusted with the management of the facility. Renovation work began in September 2020, completed in April 2021, and reopened on April 20, 2021.

Overview

The exhibits begin with an aquarium, a nipa palm mangrove forest, and a greenhouse with Southeast Asian plants, including other plants such as Dipterocarpaceae, orchids, and rhododendrons. The attached coffee shop "Claire" is a Malaysian coffee shop and is open to the public as a rest area on weekdays.

The garden is a greenhouse containing more than 300 species of Southeast Asian plants, with an aquarium of tropical fish, mangrove forest with Nypa fruticans, and other plants including Dipterocarpaceae, orchids, and rhododendrons. The aquarium is home to deep-sea fish, coral reef fish, Asian Tropical Rain Forest creatures, and long-term giant freshwater stingray.