PHYSIC GARDENS – DEVELOPMENT
PHYSIC GARDENS – DEVELOPMENT
The era of discovery and subsequent colonisation brought into Europe the flora of southern Africa, America, and the Far East. The gardens of Tenochtitlan stunned the conquerors with the range of medicinal plants grown there: the scale had far exceeded what was at that time available in Europe.
The development of gardens during the era of humanism and Renaissance went hand in hand with the discovery and collecting of medicinal plants. Gardens of villas and palaces in Italy often featured parts dedicated to new collections. In parallel, there were founded the first botanical gardens: Orto botanico di Pisa (1544), Orto botanico di Padova (1545), Orto botanico di Firenze (1545), Orto botanico dellʼUniversità di Pavia (1558), and Orto Botanico dellʼUniversità di Bologna (1568).
In the Czech Lands of Early Modern Era, botanical progress was associated mainly with religious orders, especially with the Brothers Hospitallers of Saint John of God, better known as the Brothers of Mercy. Their monasteries included hospitals, which were in turn associated with physic gardens.
Their educational function was later, during the Age of Enlightenment, taken over by university gardens. In Prague, the botanical garden of Charles-Ferdinand University was founded in 1775 in the place of former Dientzenhofer Gardens. In Brno, a Centre for Medicinal Plants of the Faculty of Medicine of Masaryk University was established in 1952 as the first specialised garden of this type in our country.
Current agriculture in the Czech Republic continues this tradition by large-scale cultivation of selected species of plants, especially caraway (Carum carvi) and milk thistle (Silybum marianum). Ribwort plantain, fennel, coriander, and fenugreek are grown on hundreds of hectares, while mint, common marigold, maral root, mallow, and dill are grown on dozens of hectares. Cultivation of medicinal plants regularly undergoes periods of growing (and waning) interest; one can also observe shifts in interest in particular species associated with a growth or decrease in demand.