Top Billing explores the Adelaide Botanic Gardens

Ryle visits the Adelaide Botanic Gardens on Top Billing

While on his expedition to Adelaide, Australia, Ryle was advised he had to visit the Botanic Gardens, and after just a few moments there, he could definitely see what all the fuss was about.

This living treasure was established on the eve of the twentieth century - as technological revolution began to unlock so many benefits of the plant kingdom. In food production, medicine, chemistry and industry.

 

The gardens feature a number of informational stops and museums, and officials hope to foster interest and appreciation for nature and conservation.

One such stop is the  Museum of Economic botany, whose displayed plants and products include those which came to be harvested for wealth, and crops which became commodities to trade and ship across the globe to build empires.

 

Another must-see is The Bicentennial Conservatory, an award winning structure that was commissioned in honour of Australia’s two hundredth birthday, and holds a stunning rainforest display with species as old as 200 million years.

The conservatory aside, as green-houses go it’s hard to beat the glass palace known as the Amazon Waterlily Pavilion, also found on the grounds of the garden. The greenhouse holds a number of treasures including the incredible Victoria amazonica waterlily, which can grow up to 2 metres in size!

 

Ryle also definitely had to make a stop at the Garden of Health, which shows how the floral kingdom has healed and kept us healthy for sixty thousand years as countless medicines trace their roots to these plants.

Seeing some species he was sure were African, our presenter was polite enough not to mention it. Nor his thoughts on Adelaide versus Kirstenbosch! [There’s rivalry – even in botany].

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