UBC Botanical Gardens and a Workshop on Chinese Medicinal Plants

 Today Meilang and Rachel are taking over to tell y’all about our visit to the UBC Botanical Gardens. We had the chance to walk around and explore the entire garden today!

We visited the Food Garden, a part of the garden where they grow different fruits and vegetables that get donated to people in need. Seeds are also collected from the plants and donated. Near the Food Garden, is the Physic Garden, which we visited next. European Medicinal plants are grown here. There were all different types of plants there, some familiar, like chamomile and roses, but also some that are poisonous, like Stinking Hellebore which is used for skin complaints and is an ingredient in sneezing powders! It was cool to read about the history of how some of these plants came to be used, and interesting that we still use them today!

After our visit at the Physic Garden, we ventured off to try to find the Golden Spruce.  Spruce trees are normally green but there was a genetic mutation which created a spruce tree with golden needles.  The tree was important to the Haida people and to the village Gamadiis Port Clement, which was called “The Home of the Golden Spruce.”  Sadly, a man named Grant Hadwin cut the tree down which he was arrested and charged for. Some of the remains of the tree were salvaged and there are now two Golden Spruce saplings, one in the UBC Botanical Gardens and one back in Gamadiis Port Clement.  Unfortunately, despite our quest to find the Golden Spruce, we were unable to find it. After that we spent time exploring the garden and sketched plants and flowers that we found unique, or interesting. The garden is filled with an abundance of beauty and wonder and you almost cannot look in any direction without seeing something inspiring.

After our visit at the UBC Botanical Gardens, we went back to Orchard Gardens to meet the previous Orchard Gardens Project Assistant who gave a workshop on Chinese Medicinal Plants.  There are two plots on Orchard Gardens that contain these types of plants.  One of the plots has plants where the roots are harvested and used for medicine.  We learned today that the best Chinese medicinal plants are not the ones that look aesthetically the best but are the ones that have undergone some type of environmental stress. This stress creates a better medicinal compound. We had the chance to try some dried licorice root. This has many medicinal properties and can also be used to help a person stop smoking as chewing on the root alleviates some of the need to smoke.