A visit to the garden of earthly delights

The tour is driven by Ramon Maria Masalles, emeritus professor of Botany at the Faculty of Biology and  member of the Biodiversity Research Institute (IRBio), telling about the distribution of the plants around the house, structured in three different parts: a garden area, an old vegetable garden and a small forest area. Although we are in front of a collection of all the plants we can find in Barcelona and its surroundings, Dr. Masalles highlights that when entering the house there are Carpinus betulus, coming from Central Europe -which are not common in Catalonia. Since the tour starts under a Tilia tree, he tells the differences between dedicious and perennial trees; gives a tip to identify a Tilia tree by looking at its leaves and comments on the particular shape of its fruit, which allows it to be moved by the wind. “It is important for a plant to have fruits that go far so that the species survive”, says the expert.

With the group of attendants, professor Masalles goes from tree to tree and plant to plant. The botanist tests visitors and they know a bit about the subject because they know all the species. He then goes deeper in topics such as the sophisticated function of the growth of tree trunks, or the analysis of characteristics and typology of crass and dainty plants -common in dry areas- and explains that some of these have turned into invader species in our territory. He also comments on the characteristics of the dual nomenclature in botany (in Latin and common language), as well as the origins of the Latin name, which is sometimes given due to the place where the plant comes from, or sometimes using the name of the botanist who classified a plant for the first time.

During the visit, the expert also comments on the uses of the plant pruning; the different systems of branching depending on the species; the function of magpies as fruit transporters, the characteristics of the so called parasite plants, and diverse types of climber and wrapping plants, which are held through their suckers, cat claws or rigid roots, among others.

Anecdotes and curiosities have a role here too: about the fruit of the nettle tree, for example, that “has the exact size of the hole of a Bic pen, and you can imagine it has been a common game among children”. Regarding chamaerops: “there are pharaonic drawings that show how slaves agitated branches of male flowers around female palm trees, to fecundate them”. And about the fruits of the arbutus (strawberry tree) -which are eatable-, he says that they have a minimum amount of alcohol, which can provoke in some situation, some light dizziness if a student eats too many of them.

With lots of attention, visitors ask lots of question: “Why some leaves turn yellow?”. And we learn that leaves that have some yellow marks are called variegated and this changing of colors may have two reasons: because the plant loses its capacity to produce chlorophyll or because it has an infection caused by a virus.

Under a Judas tree, the professor talks about the origin of the two names (in Spanish and Catalan it is called Judas tree or Love tree): love tree, due the heart-shaped leaves and pink flowers; Judas tree because some say Judas was hung on this tree. The place to end the tour is strategic because it can be read on a wall, a quote by Confucius “God, give me only this in life and it will be enough for me: a house full of books and a garden full of flowers”.

Visitors feel very satisfied and willing to repeat the tour, they even ask how to register to one of the tours that will take place at the Ferran i Soldevila gardens of the Historical Building of the University of Barcelona on October 24, 25, 26 and 27. Apart from Ramon Maria Masalles, other tour guides of this activity are César Blanché, professor at the Department of Biology and member of (IRBio), Healthcare and the Environment, José Manuel Blanco-Moreno and Estela Illa Bachs, both professors at the Department of Evolutionary Biology, Ecology and Environmental Sciences (UB-IRBio).

The organization of the botanical tours is done by the Scientific Culture and Innovation Unit (UCC+i) from the Communication Area of the University of Barcelona, with the financial support of the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness - Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology.