Plant diversity, whether for conservational or aesthetic value, is the recurring theme in botanical gardens that connects our displays, research, and visitor experiences to our missions. While the domestication of crop species has significantly altered their genomes from that of their wild crop relatives, the majority of horticultural crops are not that far removed from their wild relatives. Thus, we still explore, document, and cultivate the untapped diversity in the world’s temperate floras to enrich our gardens. Richard Olsen, Director of the US National Arboretum, considers what legacies remain from early plant explorations, how we document and capture diversity, and the future of botanical gardens in a century that will see so much lost to globalization.
