Botanical Garden of the University of Wroclaw is the second (after the Botanical Garden of the Jagiellonian University in Cracow) oldest botanical garden in Poland, located in the oldest part of Wrocław, partly on the former Cathedral Island, called Ostrów Tumski, near the gothic cathedral and St. Cross Church. It was founded in 1811, when the University of Wroclaw was established. Prof. Heinrich Robert Göppert (1800–1884), a pharmacist, doctor and botanist, the first German palaeobotanist, researcher of the Carboniferous and Tertiary flora, head manager of the Garden in 1852–1884, is considered to be its proper creator. In 1974 the Garden was registered in the register of monuments of the then Wrocław Province, and since 1994 it has been located in the historical city centre, under special conservation protection.

The collection of this ''living museum'' includes about 12 thousand species and varieties of plants from all over the world, grown on an area of 7.48 hectares in the open air, in greenhouses and in aquaria. The National Collections – the richest in Poland, best documented and exemplarily maintained collections in Poland (bromeliads family – Bromeliaceae, wintering taxa from the family Nymphaeaceae, herbaceous species and cultivars from the genus Paeonia – peony, genera: ivy – Hedera, burhead – Echinodorus and Anubias) – are of particular scientific and horticultural value. The collections of, both, species legally protected in Poland, and species covered by the so-called Washington Convention, that ensures that international trade in specimens of wild plants does not threaten their survival (CITES), are of great educational importance. The Garden, which conducts ex situ conservation crops from the Polish Red Book and from the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List, contributes to the protection of endangered species as well.

Since 1988, the Wojsławice Arboretum in Niemcza has been a branch of the Garden. Sixty two hectares are cultivated there, among others rhododendrons and azaleas (Rhododendron), trees and shrubs of rare species, numerous perennials and fruit trees, mainly old cherry varieties (Prunus avium). Arboretum has three National Collections: the genus daylily (Hemerocallis) – with more than 3 thousand cultivars, the largest such collection in Europe, boxwood (Buxus) and rhododendrons of the so-called Lusatian race cultivars called Seidel cultivars. The Arboretum is also home to numerous collections of different protected and endangered species of native flora.