The Economy Botany Collection

The Economic Botany Collection is housed in the National Herbarium at Glasnevin.

It is a made up of a substantial collection of plant specimens such as bark, fruits, leaves, fibres, tubers as well as plant-derived products and artefacts. It demonstrates the technology, craft and knowledge involved in the production of plant products; how humans have utilised and managed their environments over time and how plants have influenced and shaped humanity. As humans have developed and adapted to the natural environments in which they live, nature has simultaneously influenced cultural beliefs, knowledge systems, languages and practices.

From time to time exhibits are on display in the Visitor Centre of the Botanic Gardens. Previous exhibitions have included items associated with the Irish Patriot Sir Roger Casement, who donated plant material from, what was then the Belgian Congo. The Economic Botany Collection is housed in the Botanic Gardens, Glasnevin, and is available for consultation by appointment only. If you would like to consult any item, please contact us.

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About the Collection

The industrial and urban societies in which we find ourselves today create an ever widening gap between us and our natural environment. With a lack of understanding of the botanical origins and processes involved in the production of materials, food, and medicines, our lack of recognition for the overexploitation of natural resources, and the social and environmental consequences that follow, increases.

Gene-banks and botanic gardens work towards the ex-situ conservation of our biological heritage, but humans are an intrinsic part of nature, interrelated and mutually supportive and the conservation of biological diversity is futile without the “human intellectual ‘gene pool'” from which communities draw upon for adaptive and sustainable measures. The Economic Botany Collection plays a pivotal role in the preservation of our tangible and intangible bio-cultural heritage. Together with botanic gardens these collections can work to enhance peoples’ experiences with the natural world while bridging the gap between plants and products. As a repository for traditional and modern uses of plants throughout the world, the collection is an important resource for research and education providing invaluable data to a diverse group of disciplines such as History, Medicine, Agriculture, Anthropology, Ethnobotany, Nutrition, Pharmacology, Horticulture, Biochemistry and the Arts. Its potential for promoting the importance of cultural diversity from an environmental perspective, and documenting and promoting intangible cultural heritage of both past and present cross-cultural adaptations of plants, is far reaching.

The collection is gradually being accessioned and catalogued following guidelines outlined in The Economic Botany Data Collection Standard by Frances E.M. Cook.

Reference: McNeely (1997) in Maffi, L. 2004:12 ‘Maintaining and Restoring Biocultural Diversity: The Evolution of a Role for Ethnobiology’ in Carlson, T. J. S. and Maffi, L. Ethnobotany and Conservation of Biocultural Diversity (The New York Botanical Garden Press).

Background to the Collection

In 1853, David Moore, Curator of the National Botanic Gardens (1838 – 1879), with support from the Royal Dublin Society, established a Museum of Economic Botany. The collection was originally housed in a prefabricated iron house initially erected for the 1850 Exhibition of Manufactures at the Royal Dublin Society headquarters.

It was furnished with 16 upright and 14 horizontal display cases, and heating stoves, at a cost of £250. Glasnevin already possessed a considerable collection of artefacts and vegetable materials, and this was moved into the display cases. The Society granted the committee of botany £50 to purchase a collections of fibres, barks, gums, oils, and sections of wood that had been exhibited by the British Guiana Department in the Great Industrial Exhibition. In 1856, a collection of cut and polished wood samples, fruits and seeds was acquired from Jamaica, and all the raw fibre products and medicinal plants displayed by Mauritius at the London. Exhibition of 1865 were bought for Glasnevin. Sir William Hooker donated a specimen of the remarkable primitive cone baring plant, Welwitschia mirabilis, which grows only in the Namib Desert in south-western Africa. By the 1880s the Economic Museum had been filled with all sorts of bric-and-brac made form plant materials, Indian canoes, Chinese papers, ‘a beautiful chemisette, made from the fibre of Pine Apple Plant’, spices, preserved fruits, pine cones and drugs, including a ‘fine ball’ of opium presented…by Honourable the East Indian Company’.

Key contributors to the collection include Belfast Ropeworks Co. Ltd., The Imperial Institute, London, the Royal College of Science of Ireland and the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. In 1970, the botanical collection of the Natural History Museum was donated to the National Botanic Gardens, Glasnevin. These donations, along with individual acquisitions from all over the world, have created a rich and diverse collection of almost 6,000 artefacts and plant specimens.

Reference: Nelson, E. C. et al. The Brightest Jewel: History of the National Botanic Gardens, Glasnevin, Dublin (1987).

Useful Links

Ethnobotanical reseach and training has become increasingly popular in recent years. Today there are numerous societies, organizations, courses and resource materials available that intertwine with a broad spectrum of disciplines from Anthropology, Archaeology and Linguistics to Botany, Medicine and Biochemistry. The lists that follow are by no means exhaustive, but a starting point to develop your interest and knowledge about the exciting world of people and plants.

Sites of Interest

Centre for Biocultural Diversity CBCD
Global Diversity Foundation
Terralingua, Unity in Biocultural Diversity
The Gaia Foundation
Survival International
Cultural Survival
Botanic Gardens Conservation International BGCI
Bioversity International
TRAFFIC the wildlife trade monitoring network
Traditional Knowledge World Bank
The World Museum Community
IPinCH Intellectual Property Issues in Cultural Heritage
IMA Irish Museums Association
Global Trees Campaign
Plantlife International

Highlights of the Collection

As the Economic Botany Collection is largely in storage, this page was designed to make it more accessible to the public and to generate a better understanding of its contents. The collection is catalogued according to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions and the TDWG Economic Botany Data Collection Standard. These provide standardized terms and descriptors for plant uses and distribution benefiting collectors and the exchange of information between institutions. Within the standard, objects are placed into three levels depending on their use. Aspects of Levels 1 and 2 are demonstrated in the online collection. Reference sites used in the production of these highlights include PROTA Plant Resources of Tropical Africa, PROSEA Plant Resources of South East Asia, GRIN Germplasm Resources Information Network and The Plant List.

The Botanic Gardens welcomes potential users of the collection for research and educational purposes. Those interested in viewing and using the collection should contact us. The Economic Botany Collection is naturally heterogeneous, and automatically presents itself as multifaceted and relevant to all socio-cultural groups in today’s contemporary society. Regardless of your age, nationality, or gender, if you have information about the use of a particular plant shown online, folk stories, or experiences, we would love to hear from you.