Botany & Empire

Wellesley College Botanic Gardens

How are plant journeys shaped by histories of colonialism? • How have different peoples cultivated, used, and made knowledge about various flora? • How did plant terminology come to be translated through colonial logics into “scientific” vocabularies? • How have peoples resisted colonial science, and what might it mean to “decolonize” the plant sciences or plant institutions?

Botany & Empire is an ongoing multimedia project tracing the cultural, scientific, and historical significance of plants in the Wellesley College Botanic Gardens' collection. Since 2022, students have integrated diverse sources of knowledge to construct projects exploring the interaction of plants and colonial histories. The content of this exhibition represents the efforts of the students of ES 244: Botany, Ecology, and Empire (Spring 2022) and ES/WGST 328: Naturecultures (Fall 2024).

We invite you to explore the paths of these plants as you navigate this page and experience the Global Flora Conservatory and the outdoor gardens.

For more information on the origins of the project and to view the first collection of highlighted plants, please visit the Spring 2022 Botany & Empire Page.

Please visit the Wet Biome, Dry Biome, and Outdoor Gardens pages to view the full collection of plants researched by students in Spring '22 and Fall '24, organized by location.

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