|
The
New York Botanical Garden calls its current event Wild Medicine “groundbreaking” and “monumental” for good reason. During
its four-month run, the dynamic exhibit exploring the world of medicinal plants
will showcase more than 500 total species or cultivars and will do so in a
multifaceted fashion that intertwines the “science,
history, and culture of the ways in which mankind has used plants for healing
and wellbeing,” said Todd Forrest, the Garden’s Arthur Ross Vice
President for Horticulture and Living Collections (email,
May 14, 2013).1
"We know of no other exhibition of medicinal plants that brings together so
many species and varieties of plants that have been used medicinally by
different cultures around the world,” Forrest noted.
Garden staff, along with a group of international
specialists, spent several years developing the theme, content, and interpretation for the
exhibition, which presents to the public easy-to-understand scientific
information on medicinal plants. Wild
Medicine, which opened on May 18 and runs until September 8, consists of
four exhibits that are distinctly individual, yet share similarities in order to
enhance the larger event’s overall synergy.1 These include two
“living” horticultural exhibits, Healing
Plants Around the World and The
Italian Renaissance Garden, as well as two installations of ancient herbal
texts and botanically inspired sculpture.
Healing
Plants Around the World
Spanning the Garden’s rainforest and desert galleries
and courtyards of the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory, Healing Plants Around the World depicts “the history of medicinal
plants, beginning with their earliest recorded uses by Eastern and ancient
Greek and Roman cultures,” according to a Garden press release.1 Visitors
can stroll through the Conservatory and Garden grounds, beholding the 500-plus specimens, some of which are presented in landscapes that
evoke the natural habitats of the plants, while others are prominently
displayed in containers and raised beds. The Garden is calling Healing Plants “one of the largest
exhibitions of medicinal plants ever mounted.”2
The variety of plants, which will be rotated
throughout the exhibit’s run, include notable species such as kava (Piper methysticum), the root/rhizome of
which is used by Pacific islanders to brew a relaxing drink; cacao (Theobroma cacao), the source of
chocolate; curare (Chondrodendron
tomentosum), which Amazonian hunters use for dart poison; cinchona (Cinchona officinalis), which is used in tonic water and is the
source of the malaria drug quinine and the formerly used anti-arrhythmia
cardiac drug quinidine; and poppy (Papaver
somniferum), the Southwest Asian plant whose fruit produces the white latex
from which opium is derived, and hence the analgesic drugs codeine and morphine.3
Healing Plants was curated by
NYBG’s Vice President for Botanical Science and Director of the Institute of
Economic Botany, Michael Balick, PhD, who is on the American Botanical
Council’s Board of Trustees. He told ABC that the
Garden started growing plants for the exhibit about two years ago, and most
were grown and housed in Garden greenhouses and other living collections while
others came from specialty nurseries and seed companies across the United
States.
“We hope that Garden visitors learn that plants are and have always
been essential to human health and wellbeing and that modern medicine has its
roots in ancient and, in some cases, endangered cultural traditions,” said Dr.
Balick (email, May 14, 2013). “The New York Botanical Garden’s research program
— focused on the study of plant and fungal biodiversity, its sustainable use,
and conservation — could result in the identification of unknown and perhaps
unimaginable chemical compounds that will aid in our efforts to improve human
health. We seek to inspire visitors to learn more about the role that botanical
gardens around the world play in documenting and preserving biodiversity.”
The
Italian Renaissance Garden and more
The second living exhibit of Wild
Medicine is The Italian Renaissance Garden,
which was constructed to mimic the oldest
botanical garden in the Western world at the University of Padua
(Orto Botanico di Padova), established in 1545 to
foster botanical research. According to the United Nations Educational,
Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), which inscribed the Garden as a
World Heritage Site in 1997, it “is the original of all botanical gardens
throughout the world, and represents the birth of science, of scientific
exchanges, and understanding of the relationship between nature and culture.”4
For The Italian Renaissance Garden, landscape
architect Jorge Sanchez recreated a smaller version of the ancient Padua garden,
which embodies Renaissance architectural elements and consists of a square plot
divided into four equal sections. Beautiful and useful plants like irises (Iris spp.), foxgloves (Digitalis purpurea and D. lanata.),
and lavender (Lavandula angustifolia) are displayed
in geometrically symmetrical order in formal planting
beds, terra cotta pots, and floating in a fountain basin.1,2
Wild Medicine also features an exhibit
presenting more than 50 rare medieval and Renaissance herbals and manuscripts,
such as the 1275 Circa instans and a
1483 edition of Pliny’s Naturalis
historia.1,2 According to the Garden press release, this display
— curated by Italian art historian Lucia Tongiorgi Tomasi — “will be the most
extensive exhibition of rare herbals to be shown in the United States in
decades.” The final facet of Wild
Medicine is Four Seasons, which
consists of four 15-feet high sculpted smorgasbords of fruits, vegetables,
flowers, and other objects that are pieced-together to resemble busts — influenced
by the style of Italian Renaissance artist Giuseppe Arcimboldo. Sculpted by
contemporary American artist Philip Haas, each individual sculpture represents
one of the four seasons, Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter.
Several programs are being held throughout Wild
Medicine’s tenure at NYBG, including interactive demonstrations and
samplings of tea, chocolate, and tropical juices; a short film on the Garden of
Padua and NYBG’s scientific work; children’s activities such as creating
science journals; Italian Renaissance music and dance performances; poetry
readings; and home gardening demonstrations.2 At the exhibit’s grand
opening on May 18, 2013, the Garden featured an introductory lecture by
renowned integrative medicine physician Andrew Weil, MD, who spoke on the
diverse and impressive abilities of plants. The Garden presented Dr. Weil with
its inaugural H.H. Rusby Award in recognition of his contribution to
ethnobotany and educating the public on the role of medicinal plants in
self-care and healthcare. More information on Wild Medicine, as well as photos of the exhibit’s wondrous plants
and other features, is available at www.nybg.org/wildmedicine/index.html.
—Lindsay Stafford Mader
References
1. Wild Medicine: Healing Plants around the World, featuring the Italian
Renaissance Garden [press release]. Bronx, New York: New York Botanical Garden;
March 25, 2013. Available here. Accessed May 15, 2013.
2. Wild Medicine: Healing Plants Around the World featuring The Italian Renaissance
Garden. New York Botanical Garden website. Available here. Accessed May 22, 2013.
3. Healing Plants: featured plants. New York Botanical Garden website. Available here. Accessed May 23, 2013.
4. Botanical Garden (Orto Botanico), Padua. UNESCO website. Available here. Accessed May 23, 2013. |
