Oxford Physick Garden

The University of Oxford Botanic Garden is the oldest botanic garden in Great Britain and one of the oldest scientific gardens in the world. The garden was founded in 1621 as a physic garden growing plants for medicinal research. Today it contains over 5,000 different plant species on . It is one of the most diverse yet compact collections of plants in the world and includes representatives from over 90% of the higher plant families.

Professor Simon Hiscock became Director of Oxford Botanic Garden in 2015.

History

Foundation

In 1621, Henry Danvers, 1st Earl of Danby, contributed £5,000 (in excess of £5,000,000 in 2018) to set up a physic garden for "the glorification of the works of God and for the furtherance of learning". He chose a site on the banks of the River Cherwell at the northeast corner of Christ Church Meadow, belonging to Magdalen College. Part of the land had been a Jewish cemetery until the Jews were expelled from Oxford (and the rest of England) in 1290. Four thousand cartloads of "mucke and dunge" were needed to raise the land above the flood-plain of the River Cherwell.

Catalogue

Humphry Sibthorp began the catalogue of the plants of the garden, ''Catalogus Plantarum Horti Botanici Oxoniensis''. His youngest son was the botanist John Sibthorp (1758–1796), who continued the ''Catalogus Plantarum''.

Layout

The Garden comprises three sections:

* the Walled Garden, surrounded by the original seventeenth-century stonework and home to the Garden's oldest tree; an English yew, ''Taxus baccata''
* the Glasshouses, which allow the cultivation of plants needing protection from the extremes of British weather
* the Lower garden
* the area between the Walled Garden and the River Cherwell
A satellite site, the Harcourt Arboretum, is located south of Oxford.

The Danby Gate

The Danby Gate at the front entrance to the Botanic Garden is one of three entrances designed by Nicholas Stone between 1632 and 1633. It is one of the earliest structures in Oxford to use classical, indeed early Baroque, style, preceding his new entrance porch for the University Church of St Mary the Virgin of 1637, and contemporary with the Canterbury Quad at St John's College by others. In this highly ornate arch, Stone ignored the new simple classical Palladian style then in fashion, which had been introduced to England from Italy by Inigo Jones, and drew his inspiration from an illustration in Serlio's book of archways.

The gateway consists of three bays, each with a pediment. The largest and central bay, containing the segmented arch is recessed, causing its larger pediment to be partially hidden by the flanking smaller pediments of the projecting lateral bays.

The stone work is heavily decorated being bands of alternating vermiculated rustication and plain dressed stone. The pediments of the lateral bays are seemingly supported by circular columns which frame niches containing statues of Charles I and Charles II in classical pose. The tympanum of the central pediment contains a segmented niche containing a bust of the Earl of Danby. It is a Grade I listed structure (ref. 1485/423). The gate was shot at during the English Civil War. It previously held a statue of Charles I and one other (probably the Queen) as Charles II was only three years old when the gateway was built. The restoration dates from around 1653 and portrays both the late Charles ! and the then current king, Charles II. It wa sculpted by William Bird of Oxford.

Walled garden

*Botanical Family beds
The core collection of hardy plants are grouped in long, narrow, oblong beds by botanical family and ordered according to the classification system devised by nineteenth century botanists, Bentham and Hooker. The families represented in the Walled Garden include: Acanthaceae, Amaranthaceae, Amaryllidaceae, Apocynaceae, Araceae, Aristolochiaceae, Berberidaceae, Boraginaceae, Campanulaceae, Caryophyllaceae, Chenopodiaceae, Cistaceae, Commelinaceae, Compositae, Convolvulaceae, Crassulaceae, Cruciferae, Cyperaceae, Dioscoreaceae, Dipsacaceae, Euphorbiaceae, Gentianaceae, Geraniaceae, Gramineae, Hypericaceae, Iridaceae, Juncaceae, Labiatae, Leguminosae, Liliaceae, Linaceae, Loasaceae, Lythraceae, Malvaceae, Onagraceae, Paeoniaceae, Papaveraceae, Phytolaccaceae, Plantaginaceae, Plumbaginaceae, Polemoniaceae, Polygonaceae, Portulacaceae, Primulaceae, Ranunculaceae, Rosaceae, Rubiaceae, Rutaceae, Saxifragaceae, Solanaceae, Umbelliferae, Urticaceae, Verbenaceae, Violaceae.

In 1983, The National Council for the Conservation of Plants and Gardens (NCCPG) chose Oxford Botanic Garden to cultivate the national collection of euphorbia. One of the rarest plants in the collection is ''Euphorbia stygiana'', with only ten plants left existing in the wild. The Garden is propagating the species as quickly as possible to reduce the possibility of it becoming extinct.

*Medicinal beds
The South West corner of the Botanic Garden is home to a modern medicinal plant collection. Here you will find 8 beds, each growing plants with a connection to medicine used to treat a particular type of disease or illness. There are beds for
* Cardiology (heart complaints)
* Oncology (cancer and cell-proliferation)
* Infectious Diseases (viral and parasitic)
* Gastreoenterology (alimentary tract and metabolism)
* Dermatology (skin complaints)
* Haematology (blood typing and disorders)
* Neurology (nervous system and anaesthesia)
* Pulmonology (lungs and airways)
The plants growing in these beds contain many different natural products and fall into at least one of the following three categories:
* Directly suitable for use as a drug
* Synthetic modification provides a clinically suitable drug
* Starting point for a drug discovery programme
*Bearded irises
One bed in the northwest corner of the garden contains a display of bearded irises each May. Examples include ''Iris'' 'Eileen' and ''Iris'' 'Golden Encore'. Some of the varieties grown in the Garden are not grown anywhere else.

*Wall borders
The borders along the foot of the wall contain collections that thrive in the microclimate, many of these plant collections are grouped by their geographical origin. The Mediterranean collection at the north border includes ''Euphorbia myrsinites''. The South American collection at the north border includes ''Feijoa sellowiana'' (syn. ''Acca sellowiana''). The South African collection at the northeast border includes ''Kniphofia caulescens''.

Other wall borders contain plants from Biodiversity hotspots including Japan and New Zealand. Such areas hold high numbers of Endemic plant species, yet face substantial threat to their natural vegetation. Over 50% of the world's plant species are contained within these hotspots which collectively cover only 2.3% of the Earth's land surface.

Glasshouses

*Conservatory
The house is an aluminium replica of the original 1893 wooden house and grows seasonal flowers such as primulas, abutilon

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