"A sum of spaces and colors, forms and odors"
November 10, 2022 7:35 AM   Subscribe

Early botanical gardens were often created for the purpose of growing plants for medicine with the oldest one dating back to the 1500s in Padua Italy. Ethnobotany continues to be a rich field for study with many medical and pharmacy schools also maintaining their own "drug gardens."

Botanical gardens have many purposes including the preservation of rare species, a habitat for butterflies, pineapple pits, a place for the spoils of research and colonizing expeditions, or just being their own works of art.

Botanical gardens can be on the water, inside sinkholes, or they can move the water to where they are. While Versailles is one of the world's best known old gardens, Oman created their first botanical garden in 1991.

Botanic Gardens Conservation International works to preserve natural cultural heritage and is currently working on their 2022 Ukraine Botanic Garden Appeal as a part of their Disaster Recovery Fund.
posted by jessamyn (7 comments total) 30 users marked this as a favorite
 
Yes!!!! I can’t wait to get into this after work.
posted by janell at 8:13 AM on November 10, 2022 [1 favorite]


oh my, so many places I want/need to visit now!! I had no idea UCB had a botanical garden right in my backyard! also the Sri Lanka one is amazing!!

I'm drooling over every one of these links. thanks!!
posted by supermedusa at 9:25 AM on November 10, 2022


I had to research what a pineapple pit was and:
"The pit consists of shallow trenches covered with glass and connected with outer troughs filled with up to 15 tons of fresh horse manure. This rich decomposition radiates heat through the pit walls, and the pineapples are kept toasty in the heart of the troughs."

I may never be the same as a human after learning this.
posted by MarianHalcombe at 3:28 PM on November 10, 2022 [1 favorite]


Drug Garden? In Rhode Island? @__@*˚
posted by not_on_display at 4:04 PM on November 10, 2022


I may never be the same as a human after learning this.

I'll be honest, my two favorite links in this are the pineapple pit and the Sri Lankan water gardens.
posted by jessamyn at 4:17 PM on November 10, 2022 [2 favorites]


If I had access to tons of fresh manure I would be digging a pineapple pit in my yard! Such a clever trick.

I got to visit Sigiriya back in 2015 and it is even more awesome than it looks in the photos. Although it is also way more challenging in terms of near-vertical flights of very teeny very wobbly metal stairs hugging the curve of the rock. Plus aggro monkeys.
posted by janell at 6:29 PM on November 10, 2022 [1 favorite]


Adding a botanical garden which was important to my aunt so I have a soft spot for it because of that: Birmingham Botanical Gardens. I didn't know that they used to have a zoological collection too, including Gladly, the cross-eyed bear.
posted by paduasoy at 2:14 AM on November 15, 2022 [1 favorite]


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