Created in 1922 on formerly cultivated land, the Jean Massart Botanical Garden (from the name of its founder, a professor of botany) is part of the museums of the Free University of Brussels (ULB).

So that its extensive collections can be presented in an instructive way, the site is divided into several areas: natural and wetland vegetation, an arboretum, a garden of medicinal and aromatic plants, a garden of cultivated plants, experimental parcels, an orchard and an evolving garden. About one hundred trees in the garden are listed in the inventory of remarkable trees of the Brussels-Capital Region.

The garden attracts a very large number of birds, such as the green woodpecker, blackcap, song thrush, greenfinch, common kestrel, chaffinch, etc. It also harbours the common frog, Alpine newt and common toad.

ULB, the manager of the site, receives a subsidy from the Region, contingent on the organisation of guided visits and educational activities for schools and groups, the production of educational documents and the reception of, and provision of information to, the public, but also on maintenance, improvement and enrichment of the collections.