HORTICULTURE
TAKING STOCK OF A
LIVING COLLECTION THE GARDENS IS UNDERTAKING THE FIRST FULL AUDIT OF ITS LIVING COLLECTION AS IT SEEKS TO REVEAL THE SCALE, SIGNIFICANCE AND SHORTCOMINGS OF A
O
n13June1816,coinciding with the completion of Mrs Macquaries Road, Governor ach L an l acq M ar u ei ffici o alfoyl ded nu eht Royal Botanic Garden Sydney, Australia’s oldestScientificInstituon.Charles Fraser, the Government Botanist and theGarden’sfirstSuperintendent, subsequently established a reputation for extensive travel for the purposes of acquisition and sharing of plant 24 THE GARDENS SPRING 2022
specimens around the world. And these initial assemblages ultimately formed the foundations of the Royal Botanic Garden Sydney’s Living Collection. Living collections are, quite simply, the linchpin of any botanic garden. Records of living collections, especially when paired with pressed herbarium specimens, tell us an awful lot about the history and evolution of botanic gardens, trends in horticulture and conservation.
We know from our own historical records, for example, that Fraser published a list of 17 varieties of grapes in the Botanic Gardens,andby1833“362ofthese [specimens] were alive and for the most part healthy”. Ultimately the Royal Botanic Garden Sydney was instrumental in establishing the Australian wine industry, aside from its role in botany or testing other species of economic or ethnobotanical value, including olives,
Photos: © Royal Botanic Gardens and Domain Trust
PRICELESS GENETIC RESOURCE. DIRECTOR OF HORTICULTURE JOHN SIEMON REPORTS.
