The Botanical Archives
The Botanical Archives explore how individual plants have travelled through history, folklore and culture, and how their uses and meanings have changed over time.
Along the windswept coasts of northern Europe, sea buckthorn can look as though it belongs entirely to the cold northern coast, yet Hippophae rhamnoides has a much larger geographical and cultural story stretching across Eurasia.
Read the articleVitamin E entered our understanding not through an ancient herbal or a perfumer’s still, but through an experiment in a Californian laboratory little more than a century ago.
Read the articleLong before rose appeared in facial mists, serums and fine fragrance, its petals were already being distilled into aromatic waters, folded into food, carried through courts and gardens, and woven into traditions of beauty, medicine and ceremony.
Read the article“Some plants quietly accompany civilisation. Lavender is one of them.” Long before lavender found its place in elegant glass bottles and carefully formulated skincare, it was already woven…
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