For Paul Licht, director of the U. California Botanical Garden, the arrival of nearly 1,000 rare plants captured in a 2001 federal sting on an international plant smuggling operation forever changed the face of the sage-old oasis.
While some of the plants died in the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service operation, with care, the majority of the confiscated cycads pulled through and joined the 13,000 other species that call the garden home.
Accounts of international smuggling and heroic plant rescues are just a few among the many fascinating stories that await visitors who venture to the garden, according to Licht.
In recent months the garden has seen scores of visitors come to gaze upon a newly discovered species of orchid, as well as freshly bloomed carnivorous plant, known as a corpse flower for the noxious odor it uses to attract flies.
“People think it’s just a little university garden,” he said. “I am forever amazed when they say, ‘Wow! I didn’t know about this place.’ It’s like a secret that’s been kept for too long.”
Tucked in the hills behind Memorial Stadium, the garden spans 34 lush acres teeming with vibrant and exotic flora from nearly every corner of the world. The garden not only functions as a living museum and conservation site, but also as a plant rescue center and a valuable university resource, Licht said.
A Multifaceted Collection
Since 1980, the garden has been a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service designated Plant Rescue Center and, as a result, receives plants confiscated by the government due to noncompliance with importing and exporting laws.
“Some of the most fascinating plants we receive at the garden are the ones we get through confiscation of illegally imported materials and plants,” Licht said.
According to Holly Forbes, the garden curator, in her 20 years working for the garden she has seen just under 3,000 plants come to the garden through the rescue program. Other than cycads, plants the garden has received through the program include orchids, cacti and carnivorous pitcher plants.
“People don’t like to kill things,” Forbes said. “Instead of saying ‘You don’t have the right paperwork, let’s chuck this plant in the incinerator,’ confiscating officers find a place like our garden where the plants will be cared for.”
While plant confiscations are memorable, they make up a small percentage of the garden’s collection, Forbes said. The garden acquires the majority of its new species from an international seed exchange program.
Recent exchanges have been with the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden and the Goteborg Botanical Garden in Sweden.
“Botanical gardens around the world produce a list of seeds available for exchange, and these seeds are available to any other botanical garden,” Forbes said. “No money is exchanged. It’s a sharing of material around the world.”
The garden also receives plant donations from private plant collectors and university researchers.
In April, a new species of orchid, Ornithidium donaldeedodii, was discovered at the botanical garden. The orchid was part of private collection donated to the garden in the mid-1990s by Donald Dod, a research associate at the University Herbarium who passed away in 2008.
Other donors have benefitted from their relationships with the garden, which in turn expands its access to plants worldwide.
When Chelsea Specht, UC Berkeley assistant professor of plant and microbial biology, first arrived on campus with her research plants – bananas, ginger, turmeric and other Zingiberales – greenhouse costs made it difficult for her to maintain such a large collection.
“I asked the botanical garden if they would take my plants and store them up there,” she said. “It’s been great. My plants were about to be orphaned, but now I can go up any time and collect samples.”
A Valuable University Resource
Beyond being an auxiliary for researchers and their collections, the garden offers invaluable opportunities for campus students and faculty.
“(The garden) is serving a huge function for teaching and research on campus,” Specht said.
The garden is a campus resource similar to any library or museum, said David Ackerly, a campus associate professor of integrative biology who has taught a freshman seminar at the garden for the last five years.
“The garden really is a library of the natural world,” he said. “It’s a place where you can consult directly about plants from around the world without having to travel very far.”