Research project

Ancient History in the Leiden University Botanical Gardens

Which plants in the Mediterranean garden were already known to the ancient Greeks and Romans, and how were they utilized?

Duration: 2024 - 2025
Contact: Kim Beerden
Partners: Hortus Botanicus Leiden University

This is a collaborative project between the Institute for History and the Leiden University botanical garden (Hortus Botanicus). Kim Beerden, Patricia Kret, and Pam de Groot wrote texts about ancient (Greek-Roman) applications of plants for signs on the library bench in the new Mediterranean garden of the Hortus.

Thanks to the work of ancient writers, we know a lot about the use of plants in antiquity. They did not use modern nomenclature, so we can never be completely sure which species were referred to by the ancient plant names. However, for the species you read about here, this is presumably the case.

The texts about the plants can be found on the Dutch webpage of the project.

_{Image: cropped section of Corinthian column with festoon of wheat and pomegranates; from peristyle of the Villa of P. Fannius Synistor at Boscoreale. The Met Museum (Open Access)}