We must act on a worldwide basis to ensure resilience and health for future generations.
For countless communities around the world, the presence of medicinal plants and the traditional knowledge of their properties and uses are crucial factors for ensuring health and prosperity.
Sacred Seeds became part of United Plant Savers in 2015. Sacred Seeds is a global network of botanical sanctuaries preserving biodiversity and plant knowledge through living gardens, containing locally important plants focused on medicinals but including those of ceremonial, food, and craft use.
The Sacred Seeds network started with the medicinal plant garden located at Finca Luna Nueva Lodge in Costa Rica, similar to how United Plant Savers Goldenseal Sanctuary in Ohio became the vision for the Botanical Sanctuary Network. Uniting the work of UpS and the Sacred Seeds foundational gardens of which there are currently 31, we intend to grow our Botanical Sanctuary Network and the Foundation Gardens in an effort to safeguard traditional plant knowledge and the native habitats in which these sacred plants thrive
Sacred Seeds got its start being managed at the William L. Brown Center at the Missouri Botanical Garden by ethnobotanist Ashley Glenn, in collaboration with New Chapter.
United Plant Savers would like to honor New Chapter for its continued support towards plant conservation and Sacred Seeds founders and advisors Tom Newmark, Dr. Michael Balick, Dr. Rainer Bussmann, and Steven Farrell.
Sacred Seeds leader, Rafael Ocampo speaking about his passion for Medicinal Plants and his work with the Luna Nueva garden.
Sacred Seeds Articles
Traditional Knowledge, Biological Resources and Drug Development: Partnerships to Conserve, Develop and Respect Biocultural Diversity
Authors: Steven R. King, Julie Anne Chinnock, Michael J. Balick, Silviano Camberos Sanchez, Katy Moran, Charles Limbach Source: Intellectual Property and Biological Resources. Marshall Cavendish International, Singapore, 2004. Download the PDF.
The role of botanical gardens in climate change research
Authors: Richard B. Primack and Abraham J. Miller-Rushing Source: New Phytologist (2009) 182: 303-313 Description: Botanical gardens have a unique set of resources that allows them to host important climate change research projects not easily undertaken elsewhere. These resources include …
The Challenges of Creating a Botanical Garden
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Tending the Global Garden
Author: Elizabeth Pennisi Source: Science Vol. 329, 10 September 2010 Description: By sorting out plant names and growing threatened species, botanic gardens try to do their part for plant conservation. Download the PDF.
