Nature And Landscape

From Roots to Records: Empowering communities to create, preserve and celebrate South-West Plant Heritage via the RHS Herbarium

With Heritage-Fund support, we’ll expand the RHS Herbarium to better represent UK garden plant diversity, focusing on South-West England. Partnering with Devon communities, we’ll identify and collect locally-grown plants, building regional pride, heritage skills and access to our nationally significant collection. We aim to collect, curate, and preserve c.1,000 plants at risk from climate-change/important for climate-resilience and of cultural-importance to the region. Captured for posterity, we’ll deepen understanding and support research into how plants benefit the environment and people’s wellbeing, sharing this knowledge widely. Through participatory plant collecting, local people will play an active role in shaping heritage for the future, gaining new skills and confidence. Workshops, talks and public-events will better connect communities with plant heritage. The legacy of this accelerated, targeted collecting programme will be that South-West plant heritage is understood, preserved and celebrated as never before, cementing the status of the RHS Herbarium as a national treasure.