Kulturista - Cultural Experiences in West Sweden

C U LT U R E E X P E R I E N C E S I N W E S T S W E D E N 39 The Gothenburg Botanical Garden is one of the largest in Europe. As a visitor, you can study 16,000 species. It’s here that Åsa Kruger works as scientific curator with responsibility for deciding which plants are in the garden, that the plants have a purpose, and to disseminate knowledge about plants. – The most common question is how many plants we have, followed by: what’s in bloom at the moment? And that can vary, which is also the garden’s charm. No one year is the same as the other. But Botaniska is in bloom all year round – for example, in the greenhouses we have the largest collection of orchids in the Nordic region, which bloom most beautifully at the beginning of March. EASTER ISLAND TREES AND ARCTIC VIOLETS Visitors might perhaps not sense any difference, but the different plants in the garden are there for different reasons: some of them to protect biological diversity, others to be further cultivated and sold on as perennials. Some have been collected on scientific ex- peditions throughout the world, such as the Easter Island tree, where the Botanical Garden is still cultivating seeds which Thor Heyerdahl brought back from his expedition to Easter Island in the 1950s. The tree died out in 1962 and Botaniska is participa- ting in a project which is aimed at reintroducing the East Island tree to the island, thus far with limited success. – But we are also preserving other, more local species, such as sea holly and arctic violets. And a huge number of people visit our special viewings; most recently we had one about rock jasmine, which was fully subscribed. AT BOTANISKA THERE’S A LOVELY GARDEN CAFE, ANYDAY, WITH A GARDEN FEELING ALSO IN- DOORS. BUT ARE THERE ALSO EDIBLE PLANTS IN THE GARDEN? – Yes, my favourite is the miracle fruit – it’s perhaps not the best, but it’s the most fun! It changes the taste buds: if you eat a slice of lemon after a miracle fruit, it will taste incredibly sweet. We like nerdy knowledge, after all we’re botanists… The Japanese Glade, the Korean Glade, the Topiary Garden, the Perennial Garden, the Steppe Border, the Bulb Garden, the Kitchen Garden, the Rhododendron Valley… At the Gothenburg Botanical Garden (“Botaniska”) the entire world is in bloom, irrespective of season. Botaniska flowers whatever the season