Of course I visited the botanic garden in Zürich too. I’ve been trying to figure it out. Where this interest comes from. My obsession with botanic gardens. I’d like to say there’s something profound about it – but maybe it’s just a type of collection. I come from a family of collectors, list-makers and chroniclers. I tick gardens off my list and I write about them. That simple satisfaction.
But I’m not sure. Maybe there’s something more. Like this thing about naming. I’ve read a couple of articles lately about how people are losing their literacy of nature. Words to name species and landscape features are disappearing from dictionaries and people’s vocabularies. Robert Macfarlane, the author, has written books about these words and then written articles about these books and they are on the top of my very long list of books to read. And then George Monbiot, another author, wrote about the significance of words – that we construct our world with language and that how and what we choose to name limits what we care and can take action for.
I believe in the magic of words. I believe that most people care deeply – but that care mainly arises for things we know and have experienced. A nameless tree in the Amazon rain forest or an anonymous succulent in the Atacama desert might be too abstract a concept for many people to take action for. And this is where the botanic gardens can come in. A place to learn the names of exotic and strange species, be seduced by their colors and sense their scents in the air. Experiences that can inspire a little bit more care for faraway ecosystems in people who otherwise would feel them to be too abstract and unknown. Maybe.
I think the botanic garden in Zürich is a good place to learn care. It is small, but well kept, with winding trails across the hills and through the groves of beeches and lime-trees. The dome-shaped greenhouses were both architecturally interesting and intensely lush on the inside.
And on the grass next to the pond, they had made a neat little arrangement with chili fruits. I had no idea they came in so many different shapes and colors. Beautiful – but dangerous!
A really nice hidden corner of Zürich. Yet another commendable botanic garden to expand the parts of the world I care about.
Katja Malmborg 