Can we make a Botanical Garden?

[nelsonic]

A botanical garden (or botanic garden) is a garden dedicated to the collection, cultivation, preservation and display of a wide range of plants labelled with their botanical names. It may contain specialist plant collections such as cacti and other succulent plants, herb gardens, plants from particular parts of the world, and so on; there may be greenhouses, shadehouses, again with special collections such as tropical plants, alpine plants, or other exotic plants. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Botanical_garden

Our plan has always been to maximize the biodiversity of the @home garden(s). In addition to having the widest possible variety of plants, I want to have an amazing labeling system with common names in both English and Portuguese and cientific names. I want to laser-etch plywood info plaques with brief intros and a QR code that lets people read more detail.

Additionally, I intend to collect (and publish) vast amounts of data for the various plants in+around the house/garden so that we can effectively manage everything.

This will already go a long way toward being a bonafide Botanical Garden!

According to Kew's list of required features for classification as a Botanical garden: https://www.kew.org/read-and-watch/what-is-a-botanic-garden I think we can easily meet all the criteria and apply to the association to be included in their list.

---

The International Association of Botanic Gardens decided in 1963 that a botanic garden is a place ‘open to the public in which the plants are labelled’.(1)

In 2019, Botanic Gardens Conservation Internationals defines a botanic garden having met a list of criteria, either in part of whole, such as:

• Having a reasonable degree of permanence an underlying scientific basis for the collections proper documentation of the collections, including wild origin
• monitoring of the plants in the collections
• adequate labelling of the plants
• open to the public
• communication of information to other gardens, insitutions and the public
• exchange of seed or other materials with other botanic gardens, arboreta or research insitutions
• undertaking of scientific or technical research on plants in the collections
• maintenance of research programs in plant taxonomy in associate herbaria

---

The only "tricky" one is the "open to the public". But I think we can meet that criteria by doing exactly what Kew gardens does in terms of having a gate with a ticket office. The only difference is our "gate" will be an App. If people register using our App, they are welcome to enter and enjoy our garden! 🏡

[nelsonic]

There is no restriction on the type of plant that needs to be grown in a botanical garden. So I think (and I hope you agree) we should focus on having:

1. The widest selection of edible plants in a single place of any garden (of comparable size). This narrows our focus and also ensures that the experience of visiting our garden is multi-sensory; where else can you taste 100+ types of plant in a day?
2. A careful selection of the best companion plants, which can/should also be edible or at least non-toxic to aid in the growing of the edibles.
3. Plants that are attractive to small animals/insects which are native to the area. e.g: birds, bees and butterflies.

   Obviously this isn't great for people who suffer from or ornithophobia or entomophobia. We hypothesise that we might be able to help these people overcome their fears by showing them that our local fauna are entirely harmless. We don't live in Australia ... 🕷

The only plant (tree) that is currently in the braga@home garden that does not meet the first and second criteria are Ilex aquifolium AKA Holly which has attractive red berries that are highly toxic to humans and can kill small children (20 berries lethal dose) and cause vomiting and diarrhoea in adults. Worth noting that there are documented uses for Holly leaves in traditional medicine. It is supposed to be diuretic, a relief from fever, joint pain, and a laxative. Unfortunately there is "insufficient evidence" in the modern/western medical literature to substantiate the health benefit claims. As with most common plants, no pharmaceutical company or research institution is going to give funding to prove the effectiveness as a treatment because there is no ROI. I think our best course of action with the Holly tree - which is a protected species in PT - is to cut the lower branches back so that they are out of reach and remain vigilant if the berries fall to the ground. 💭

Camellia sasanqua native to China and Japan, Strelitzia reginae native to South Africa, Laurus nobilis (Bay trey) and Pinus pinaster (Stone pine) both native to Portugal are all edible and even medicinal. We have several other plants in the garden and veranda including ferns, palm trees, cacti, aloes, several herbs and succulents which require further observation and classification, but to my knowledge none are toxic.

The Instituto da Conservaçao da Naturesa e das Florestas (ICNF) icnf.pt (Institute of Conservation of Nature and Forrests; who said Portuguese was a difficult language? 😉) has a great PDF detailing the indigenous tree species in Portugal. We will be growing several of these in: #6 + #28 🌱 🌳 http://www2.icnf.pt/portal/florestas/gf/prdflo/resource/doc/ICNF_EspeciesIndgenas_Edicao2016-2.pdf