finistère

TO THE HAPPINESS OF PLANTS
The choice of the oceanic Climate was necessary of itself because it is in this type of region that the maximum of bio variety is found. However, the climate of Finisterre possesses really peculiar properties. The same peculiarities in several points of the world very rich in plants : are found: California, centre of Chilli, the South east of Australia, the New Zealand... Sweet and moderate witnesses rare temperature variations throughout seasons. Thanks to this peculiarity, plants acclimatize in Finisterre which they could not in the Mediterranean Sea or aridity would have made them burn. Therefore Finisterre knows a flora of a great wealth.
From a natural point of view also, the nature of the ground, almost exclusively acid, is the one that is convenient for the greatest number of sorts such as rhododendron, camellia, magnolia, hydrangea.... it is possible besides to modify the composition of this ground to make it more calcareous while the opposite is not it possible.

EARTH OF MARITIME INVESTIGATION
Finistère is a maritime department, of which culture and the language, far from locking hit on itself, tend to open it to the world. Finistère produced numerous explorers, whether they are of native origin or that they found in this department the favourable conditions: Gadeau de Kerville who investigated New World; Glaziou, botanist Morlaix, who studied the forests of the east of Brazil ; Huon de Kermadec, who dedicated himself to Australia and to the New Zealand; Raoul, Brestois of native origin, well known in the New Zealand; Frézier, who brought the strawberry from Chile... to Plougastel notably where she knows a notorious development... Bougainville and Pérouse, to quote only the most famous, make of Brest a famous place of departure of maritime investigation. The garden of the Maritime Hospital gives evidence of this activity. II was based to restore the plants which circulated by sea before their forwarding towards another places. It is in such an environment that the foundation of the conservatoire is placed. It continues the tradition of the investigation of the world with modern means.

PALM TREES AND HOLM OAKS
The natural environment of Finistère changed bit by bit in the course of centuries, under the pressure of the man obviously (disappearance of hedged farmlands and bank) and because of its maritime peculiarity . Arrée's mountains, so appreciated today for their landscape of moors and the particular atmosphere which emanates of it, were formerly covered with a forest. It was almost destroyed in the time of Colbert, trees having supplied the wood necessary for the construction of vessels... The numerous sailors and the explorers, celebrate or anonymous, who dashed of Finisterre, returned to their port of tie with seeds and plantations of these distant countries. They so introduced new sorts of fruits, vegetables, flowers which are of use for us in daily life or which decorate our gardens: strawberries, potatoes, beans, kiwi, guavas, hydrangeas, rhododendrons, fuchsia...
The palm tree of Chile, Juboeo chilensis, is a very ancient introduction. Morlaix's great Jubaea dates of 1840, it is likely that it is the most ancient of Europe and maybe of the world. The dimensions are exceptional: it achieves 20 metres in height, including leaves (a leaf measures about 4 metres), and its circumference is 3, 20 metres. Other less old Jubaea exists in the valley of Odet which remains nevertheless the natural area of Holm oaks. These trees are one of the peculiarities of the site. Some live bizarrely in small cliffs and cliffs of the estuary and some specimens are really impressive, one of the biggest reaches 6, 70 metres of circumference.

THE FLOURISH OF PARKS AND GARDENS
As a general rule the introduction of exotic plants has a beneficial effect because they contribute to the variety of cultures and of gardens. However, it can have fatal consequences if they escape any control (invasive plants) and that they trivialize the whole landscapes. Also, to plant exotic trees in rare and threatened environments as dunes, peat bogs, moors, can entail their disappearance, as well as that of the plants and the animals which compose it.
The discovery of the world and specially the world of plants is far from being ended but the great construction site of our time is unmistakably the transmission of this living patrimony to future people. One attends a real flourish of the art and love of plants today. This one resumed in gardens a place comparable to the one that it had one century ago. And thanks to the particularly favourable conditions of our region, it is an aspect of the variety of the world that people can observe through parks and gardens of Finistère.