Exhibit at the Bryant-Bannister Tree-Ring Building
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The Campus Arboretum has established a florilegium of the Joseph Wood Krutch Garden in partnership with the Sonoran Desert Florilegium Program.
A florilegium is a collection of scientific illustrations documenting the plants in a special garden.
The original artworks are kept at Special Collections, and we helped with the exhibit.
Artists Pauline Savage, Chris Bondate, Diane Inman, Joyce Peters, and Karen Gengle created beautiful botanical art that documents the scientific and aesthetic value of the University of Arizona's most important historic garden, an inspiring model of a sustainable urban landscape.
Despite advances in technology used to capture botanically significant details through photography and microscopy, scientific illustration retains great value as an effective educational resource simply because it encapsulates all important views and detail magnification in one small panel. Furthermore, botanical illustrations are masterfully created and exquisitely beautiful!
Florilegia serve as important historical records, inspiring artistic expressions, and a useful scientific tool to record local and regional species diversity in perpetuity.
Given the need for conservation and stewardship of plants in an increasingly urban world, this inspiring collection maintains the relevance of the ancient practice of florilegia.