In Spring 2022, twenty-three Wellesley College students explored these questions in "ES244: Botany, Ecology, and Empire" with Professor Ashanti Shih. Our approach was simultaneously global and locally situated, as we traced the roles that plants and the natural sciences have played in colonial histories across six continents and several islands. Together we read texts by scientists, Indigenous knowers, historians, anthropologists, chefs, and artists. We examined herbarium specimens and botanical illustrations in the Archives and visited the Botanic Gardens on campus. Finally, we engaged with guest speakers who taught us about Native midwives' botanical knowledge, contemporary seed-banking practices around the world, and what it's like to work in plant sciences and institutions that are trying to address their colonial legacies now.

This website and the accompanying exhibition in Wellesley College's Global Flora Conservatory represent the culmination of our journey through the pasts and presents of colonial botany and ecology. Each student chose a plant from the Global Flora collection and created an ArcGIS StoryMap and an accompanying label next to their plant. The StoryMaps explore both historical and contemporary stories about the plants and their relationship to colonial science, Indigenous knowledge, industry, food, medicine, and much more.

We invite you to learn about these plants and their various meanings as you explore this website and the Global Flora Conservatory in the Wellesley College Botanic Gardens. Use the navigation above to explore stories about plants in the wet biome and stories about plants in the dry biome of the greenhouse.