PunchbowlDMZ Botanic Garden
The “Punchbowl,” where the DMZ Botanic Garden is located
The DMZ Botanic Garden is located at the foot of the "Punchbowl" in Haean-myeon Yanggu-gun, Gangwon-do, at the base of Mount Daeamsan. Haean-myeon is the only region in South Korea where one basin forms one town.
PunchbowlDMZ Botanic Garden
The "Punchbowl" is a nickname based upon the unique topography of Haean-myeon. During the Korean War, this area was a battlefield where the 1st Marine Regiment of the ROK Army and the 1st Marine Division of the North Korean Army. A foreign war correspondent who covered this grueling battle said that the sunset over the blood-stained battlefield reminded him of a punchbowl.
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The "Punchbowl" embracing the DMZ Botanic Garden
A huge basin surrounded by mountains over 1,000 m high, the "Punchbowl" is inhabited by a variety of northern plants that only grow at this latitude because of the unique geographical features. It is a botanically valuable place for arboreal research.
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The DMZ Botanic Garden was established in 2016 on the hill of the "Punchbowl" with the aim of carrying out research on and promoting the conservation of northern and DMZ plants. This botanic garden is the closest to the DMZ at the highest altitudes in South Korea and strives to conserve and manage both the northern and rare and endemic plants in the DMZ region; this garden acts as an east–west ecological axis for the Korean Peninsula, while being an active site for conducting research, exhibition, and education.
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As part of such an effort, they have eight unique outdoor exhibition spaces at the DMZ Botanic Garden.
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DMZ Garden
Various important forest resources are located in the DMZ; however, there are few opportunities to directly experience the plants in this area owing to the limited access to the general public. The DMZ Garden is a place that reproduces the scenery of the DMZ running east to west across the Korean Peninsula. It is an exhibition space for the environment in which plants grow, highlighting the topographical characteristic of "high in the east and low in the west" You can see native plants gathered from the eastern DMZ, a rugged mountainous region; the central DMZ, which is gradually forming a plain; and the western DMZ, which leads to the Imjin River, in one space—the DMZ Garden.
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Rare and Endemic Plants Garden
There are a lot of rare and endemic plants in the DMZ, untouched by humans. The Rare and Endemic Plant Garden is a research space to protect these plants and establish an organized management system.
Here, many rare and endemic plants from various environments greet you in one place; for example, Megaleranthis saniculifolia Ohwi and Iris odaesanensis Y.N.Lee are found deep in the mountains, and Androsace cortusifolia Nakai and Clematis fusca var. flabellata (Nakai) J.S.Kim are found on rugged mountaintops.
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High Moor Garden
The High Moor Garden is modeled after Yongneup, the only high moor in Korea that has been registered in the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands and is receiving great ecological and academic interest. The High Moor Garden has been created in the lowland according to the landscape by utilizing the slopes. Based on the orthodox theory that wetlands adjacent to each other have high biodiversity due to the frequent migration of species, various species have been planted around the water system connecting the wetlands.
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Wildflower Garden
The Wildflower Garden is an exhibition space designed to share the scenery that the researchers have encountered while surveying the trees and flowers along the fence. The flowers blooming and withering in the Wildflower Garden harmonize with the forests around the DMZ Botanic Garden to form an exhibition garden that is one with the surrounding landscape and not an artificial exhibition space.
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War Garden
The War Garden is a themed garden within the DMZ Botanic Garden, built with the hope for peace and reunification by reflecting the natural, historical, and cultural elements of the DMZ. Nestled in the "Punchbowl," the former battlefield, this space is intended to provide the opportunity to remember the pain of war and heal the wounds of such memories with trees and flowers for those who visit the War Garden of the DMZ Botanic Garden.
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Pine Garden
The Pine Garden is a space to collect and display the original species, variants, and varieties of Pinaceae distributed around the world. By collecting alpine coniferous plants that are vulnerable to climate change, such as Abies, Picea, and Pinus, in this exhibition garden, it is hoped that this space can help to ensure the diversity of forest resources.
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Forest of Remembrance
One corner of the DMZ Botanic Garden used to be the farm of a resident who once cultivated this land. The traces of the fields surrounded by stone walls tell the story of its history. The memories of windy, sunny, and rainy days are piled up here one after another. The passing of time has naturally turned these once cultivated lands into a small forest. The DMZ Botanic Garden has named this forest the "Forest of Remembrance" and is protecting it.
Researchers at the National DMZ Native Botanic Garden have long been conducting surveys along the barbed-wire fence to identify and study undiscovered plants in the demilitarized zone (DMZ). Follow the footprints and gaze of the researchers to find plants blooming along the fence here.
The National DMZ Native Botanic Garden is actively conducting research to restore nature in the DMZ. Read the story here.
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