Episode 8: Natural History

Ever notice how , when you read about a plant in an encyclopaedia , there ’s a indorsement at the bottom about how it was first discovered or key ? Sometimes it ’s a few sentence , but often no more than a name ? Ever enquire what take place to those original plants ? I never did … Until I found out they ’re still around . This calendar month ’s Garden Confidential is a plant eccentric ’s summertime trip to the natural history museum .

In this episode , I ’ll blab with my first node , Julie McIntosh Shapiro of the Harvard University Herbaria , about what these “ original works ” still tell us about themselves , the world , and the human race , today and yesterday .

“ All told , in the building , we hold about 5 million dry out plant specimen , ” order Shapiro . “ And every jaunt , we get specimens in every day , from all over the world . ” The Harvard Herbaria are among the largest herbarium groups , but hundreds exist in city and at colleges and universities around the world . These facilities bear monumental compendium of distinctive preserved plant life , like plant museums ( except not open to the public ) . “ I call it a flora morgue because it ’s very quiet and the plants are on sheets of paper , ” Shapiro says .

“ Natural History ” is the month on Garden Confidential . We hope you ’ll line in for more .

Music from this podcast byccMixterand Kevin MacLeod ( Incompetech.com ) .

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