Botanist reveals the origins of garden flora

As you wander through your favorite nursery, do you ever ask yourself where all the plants come from?

I'm not talking about the nursery where a plant was started from seed, but the area of the world the plant is native to.

Where plants come from is a fascinating subject. Most plants in our gardens aren't native to our area. No common fruits or vegetables are native to Utah, and most of our landscape trees were introduced from other areas of the world, coming from all the continents except Antarctica.

The diversity is outstanding, and so are the stories. Great pleasure gardens existed thousands of years ago in ancient Sumer, between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. The first recorded plant-hunting expedition was ordered by Queen Hatshepsut of Egypt, when she dispatched five ships to gather valuable plants, animals and precious goods from the Land of Punt some time around 1500 B.C.

Plant hunting reached its zenith as explorers from Europe sailed the world in search of exotic plants. During this golden age of plant exploration, many scientists — like Joseph Banks, who sailed with James Cook to the South Pacific — collected numerous plants. Soon plants from every land were featured in botanical collections throughout the world.

Since this time, exploring has changed. While some may think there are no new plants to be discovered, that is far from true.

While there are no new continents to discover, many plants remain to be discovered and an even greater number have yet to have their commercial potential fulfilled.

Utah gardeners will have a rare treat to hear the stories of modern-day plant hunters when author Bobby J. Ward, a soft-spoken gardening enthusiast, visits Red Butte Garden next week.

"I grew up on a family farm in eastern North Carolina that had farmland and wooded areas, Ward said in a telephone interview from his home in Raleigh.

"This provided an excellent area to learn about nature and helped lead to me to get an undergraduate and a Ph.D. in botany from North Carolina State University."

Ward, who worked as an environmental scientist for a power company, said that although he had farmed as a young man, his real involvement in gardening is more recent.

"I started gardening 10-15 years ago as I anticipated early retirement," he said. "I joined North American Rock Garden Society and became active in our local chapter. I started editing our chapter newsletter and started meeting and talking to people about plants."