Scientific riches abound in the riverside gardens
Craig Jeffcott
One of London’s horticultural hotspots reopened its gates last week. Chelsea Physic Garden celebrates the history of natural therapeutics and botany, and would be of interest to scientists and garden enthusiasts alike.
It was founded in 1673 to provide training for apothecary students in using medicinal plants. A seed library was established in 1683, allowing exchange of species with botanic societies across the world. Carl Linnaeus, who devised the two-name system of classifying species, visited in 1736. Celebrations at the garden will mark the 300th anniversary of the taxonomist’s birth later this year.
Chelsea Physic Garden has always been active in scientific research. Today, themed collections comprising some 4620 plants are on show, arranged by family, origin and growing conditions.
Medicinal resource
The garden will be particularly appealing to anyone with an interest in the history of pharmacology and the origins of drugs.
The Pharmaceutical Garden contains plants arranged by therapeutic use. For example, the opium poppy, from which morphine is derived, grows in the analgesics area alongside autumn crocus (which yields colchicine), and can also be found in the section for cardiac drugs. This latter part of the garden also contains deadly nightshade (a source of atropine) and foxglove, a source of digoxin. Until 2001, GlaxoSmithKline took 50 plant samples from the garden each year to investigate their possible pharmaceutical uses.
Climate monitoring
Staff have taken daily meteorological readings of temperature and rainfall for 100 years. Neil Cousins, a spokesperson for the garden, believes this resource might be useful to climatologists. Additionally, pollution levels are monitored by Kensington and Chelsea council. “Perhaps over time, pollution monitoring could be linked to traffic volume and congestion charging,” suggests Cousins.
The Chelsea Physic Garden is at 66 Royal Hospital Road, Chelsea. It opens every Wednesday from 12pm to dusk, Thursday and Friday 12pm–5pm, and on Sunday and Bank Holidays 12pm–6pm. Admission is £7 for adults.
The gardens are offering 2 for 1 entry to Nature Network London readers throughout April and may. Bring a print-out this article on your visit. A maximum of 2 adults per printout will be allowed. Not valid in conjunction with any other offer. Offer expires 31 May 2007.