Medicinal Plants at the Arnold Arboretum: An Exploration of the Wild and Cultivated Remedies Growing Beneath our Feet
John de la Parra, Associate, Harvard University Herbaria, and Ernest Anemone, JD Lecturer, Tufts University, will lead a guided tour of the cultivated and wild medicinal species in the Arboretum.
The Leventritt Shrub and Vine Garden contains a multitude of cultivated plants with culturally significant medicinal properties. However, on a casual stroll along Linden Path to the Leventritt, you will pass dozens of other plants that are often looked upon as simple weeds. Many of these plants have rich ethnobotanical histories of their own that tie us closer to our environment. Your guides will explain how these "weedy" plants came to colonize this area while touching on cultural contexts and botanical identification of these wild species—as well as the cultivated medicinal species in the Leventritt Shrub and Vine Garden.
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