Exotic plants used in revamp of Royal College of Physicians’ garden

HUNDREDS of exotic flowers from around the world that have been used for centuries for healing have been laid in the grounds of the Royal College of Physicians, Regent’s Park.
The garden boasts more than 1,500 species – and for the first time in the College’s history, visitors were allowed to wander through the gardens last weekend as part of the college’s first ever open day.
It replaces the old garden planted 70 years ago and designed by renowned architect Sir Denys Lasdun.
The college, founded by King Henry VIII in 1518 has more than 11,000 members worldwide.
In January, work started to bring the garden into the 21st century.
Some of the old plants remain for their biographical interest but apart from the few survivors – including the pomegranate tree that is the college’s emblem – the garden has been totally re-laid.
The college hopes the plants will provide a sustainable source of research material.
The plantings are themed to reflect geographical regions and their native plants and medicinal traditions.
There are more than 100 medicinal species from North America although many of them are no longer deemed remedial.
Mark Griffiths, the editor of the multi-volume New Royal Horticultural Society Dictionary of Gardening and regular contributor to Country Life, explained the garden’s background.
He said: “The North American orchid Spiranthes cernua was thought to be an aphrodisiac by the Iroquois because of its fleshy penile root tubers.
“In other cases, recent research has revealed genuine and useful activity in these plants. A resin from the May apple, Podophyllum peltatum, was once used by native Americans to remove warts. It is now the basis of an effective treatment for uterine warts. And its relation, caulophyllum thalictoroides, is indeed a contraceptive as was originally thought by the North American tribe Algonquin.”
The long borders that flank the Outer Circle of Regent’s Park contain a willow tree, some foxgloves, yews and the rare Angelica Gigas used in China and Korea to combat senile dementia and believed to enhance memory.
And the college grows plants that orignated in the Middle East. These include aromatics, classic apothecaries’ materials such as damask and officinal roses, and the essential palette of medicinal herbs that were in when the college was founded. Mr Griffiths said some of the European plants had become of medicinal interest again. He said: “Among these rediscoveries, the most spectacular has to be the fabled dragon tree, Dracaena draco, whose blood red resin was once the most highly valued of all medicinal substances, reputed to cure ills ranging from ‘thin blood’ to impotence.”
In the lower section of the garden are the medicinal plants from the sub-tropics and southern hemisphere- inclduing neo-tropical hallucinogens and aromatics from Australasia.