The Wellesley College Botanic Gardens are botanical gardens located on the campus of Wellesley College in Wellesley, Massachusetts. The greenhouses and 22 acres of outdoor gardens include thousands of plants representing over 1,500 different taxa from more than 150 different plant families.
History
The Wellesley College Botanic Gardens encompass four gardens, arboretums, or greenhouses:
The Global Flora Conservatory at the Margaret C. Ferguson Greenhouses was named after Margaret Clay Ferguson, a pre-eminent botanist and member of the Wellesley College faculty in the first half of the 20th century. With its highlight on plant form, Global Flora Conservatory carries Margaret Ferguson's vision of "laboratories under glass" into the 21st century. It is a showcase of living beauty highlighting plant form, as well as a new node for interdisciplinary science research and teaching, and an innovative example of sustainable design. In 2017, the Global Flora project won a LafargeHolcim bronze medal, a prestigious international award in sustainable design. The original Ferguson Greenhouses were demolished in 2018 to make way for the Global Flora Conservatory.
In 2011, The Edible Ecosystem Teaching Garden (EETG) was established. Located on the slope below the Whitin Observatory, this designed plant community mimics the properties of a natural ecosystem but produces food and other products useful to humans with a minimum of maintenance. Community planting workdays are held twice a year, in spring and early fall. The overall design concept is a "bowl of fruit," with taller tree species fringing the swamp and dwarf trees planted closer to the observatory. This design allows for unrestricted sight lines from the telescopes even as the garden matures. Among the specific habitats are a nut grove, fruit woodland, and a fruit thicket.
During the Wellesley College Science Center construction project, which ended in 2021, the Global Flora Conservatory was temporarily closed. The Global Flora Conservatory has since been reopened to members of the Wellesley College community.