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Green Spaces Project of
the Month
January
2003 - Chinese
Hillside, Royal Botanic Gardens Edinburgh
Contact: David Paterson, Deputy Director
of Horticulture, 0131 552 7171 d.paterson@rbge.org.uk
Botanic gardens are green spaces for
everyone's pleasure, but they have
special meaning for ethnic communities
because they hold examples of plants from
all over the world with which they have
cultural associations. It is a place to
see "old friends" (plants) from
one's country of origin, or for those who
are born here to make some discoveries.
Edinburgh's Royal Botanic Gardens has
the largest collection of Chinese plants
in the world outside China. It is
therefore a special resource for
interested groups from the Chinese
community. But, plants do not have
"nationalities". Many of these
plants wil be familiar to people from the
same geographical region. There are many
Chinese plants throughout this botanic
garden, but here we are highlighting a
special project - the Chinese Hillside.
A brave experiment is underway at the
Royal Botanic Gardens Edinburgh. A Living
Collection of plants from Yulong Xue
Shan, the Jade Dragon Snow Mountains in
South Western China, is growing on a
`Chinese Hillside'. Because the plants
are allowed to grow together in a natural
way, you can experience what it must be
like to wander on a wild mountainside in
China, and see how these plants interact
in the wild to create ecological zones at
different altitudes. Everyone is welcome
to explore, and Scotland's Chinese
communities may enjoy recognising some
well-known medicinal plants, or
identifying familiar trees and shrubs
remembered from back home. And with a new
grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund,
there will soon be opportunities to
volunteer on an environmental
interpretation project, to improve public
information about the gardens.
More
...
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