Great Outdoors

UC Botanical garden

A Captured and Conserved Wilderness

The textbook description of weather in Northern California is a strict dichotomy between “hot, dry summers” and “cold, wet winters,” but Berkeley often experiences days that are a golden in-between. On such days, the sky holds nothing except the sun and the shadow of half a moon. Sunlight falls gently, first on the hills, then across campus, and its heat is retained in the shade.

This gentle climate creates the perfect conditions for plants from Mediterranean regions, and they thrive in the UC Botanical Gardens. There, a soft breeze moves lazily between cacti and conifers alike. Shrubs from the Channel Islands, Northeast America, Korea, and Japan cover the ground under redwoods and Chile Lantern Trees. In the distance, the Berkeley Hills form a vertical incline—a two-dimensional backdrop painted with impressionist brushstrokes of black and green against an unchanging blue sky.

Though you can enjoy the sweet scent of fresh earth and pine trees in the UC Botanical Gardens, the scene is far from untame. Along the path, you will find carefully numbered raised beds labeled with the biomes the plants have come from. There is clear evidence of human intervention to assist plant growth; neon green hoses, shiny wire nets, and orange Home Depot flags are as abundant as the lizards scurrying across rocks. Each patch of vegetation holds a plaque containing information about the organism’s common and scientific name, where it was collected, its status on the Endangered Species List, and more. Posters throughout the area advertise resource conservation, providing helpful tips on how to preserve the plants you’re viewing. In the garden’s many climate-controlled greenhouses, exotic specimens spill out of identical black pots, reaching for the filtered light from the roof and swaying to the hum of fans. The collection captures pieces of ecosystems from around the world and showcases them in a neat, precise construction.

What you learn from your visit, however, is not just the scientific names and native land of the flora and fauna around you. As you explore a plethora of environments from a pocket of Northern California, you will expand your understanding of the rich biodiversity that the planet generates. This treasury of habitats inspires a love for nature, a much needed sentiment in the human-driven world that we exist in today. The UC Botanical Gardens is successful in its efforts to conserve the species we have left and encourages an attitude of stewardship, a desire to protect the Earth’s natural resources through an experience in the great outdoors.

Words: Anjika Pai

Photos: Liz Mao