Human-altered landscapes

We humans have long had impact on the natural world, and it’s probably close to a tipping point.  But I’m always hopeful about the power of nature (if not to restore) at least to heal, even when it’s with a diversity of opportunistic plants.

A visit to the National Botanic Garden here in Dublin this morning was interesting on many levels.

First, it’s a traditional European botanic garden, with beds of representative plant family examples. Second, it has WONDERFUL old glass conservatories, preserving plants from all of the world, from alpines to tropical. Third, the in-ground plantings along the river and the rockery garden were amazing.

I appreciated all of the young families who were enjoying the botanic garden basically as a park (even as I cringed a bit as a former botanical garden staff member).  Families were everywhere, from the alpine house, to the riverside plantings, to the tea room.

But Dublin isn’t a particularly “green” city in terms of parks, as far as I can tell, nor are streetside plantings especially notable (although evident).  So why shouldn’t families enjoy the garden as a naturally green area, after all?  It was a free entrance, too.  How nice is that.   (Uh, please don’t let your kids touch the alpines in pots, I thought, as the sign in the conservatory said, though.}

But the most poignant garden within the larger botanic garden was “Wild Ireland.”  There is only 3.5 % of original deciduous woodland left, apparently.  There was a nice Burren recreation and a seaside example, too, but clearly the native plant gardens here were not the focus.

But I heard abundant birdsong in the recreated patch of wet woodland and oak forest.  It was welcome.

I’ll have to try to post that in a non Blog-Touch format.  (They don’t seem to handle photos or videos very well — if you’re interested, click through to the original post, if you’re on a feed.)

This herbarium staff member is both celebrating native Irish bryophytes as s/he laments the excursion of invasives, too.  (There were a lot of ours present in this garden as nice garden plants).   I think a cultivar of garlic mustard was being mowed around as an interesting spring wildflower?  It seemed to be a cultivated relative, but it sure looked like garlic mustard (which I definitely had seen in its feral form, too).