Hortus Gymnasium for biodiversity and ethnobotany
The cultivation plan on the estates called “Vigna di valle”, Latium and “Via in Rose”, Calabria, covers essentially productive plants, destined as crops for food or aromatic or medicinal production.
From the beginning, man has resorted to spontaneous fruits, herbs, roots and tubers to procure daily food, at the same time he has learned to cultivate plants to use them in various ways:
Plants as food. There are so many plants and herbs that can be used for animal and human nutrition: in the countryside at the end of winter, when the food stores were empty, it was the spontaneous herbs that guaranteed a meal to the peasant families. Spontaneous plants, later domesticated, created a wealth of agricultural and food specificities for local culture and crops, today threatened by modern commercial distribution systems and globalized eating habits. The vegetable garden, also known as the butcher shop of the poor, was almost always placed in the immediate vicinity of the farmyard and the house, to constantly carry out daily work and harvest vegetables to cook. We want to emphasize how the rural development plan proposed by the agricultural company HortusGymnasium intends to contribute to the identification of traditional fruits and vegetables of the Calabrian territory, and in particular of the province of Cosenza, in order to create a catalog with more specimens by species, strengthening their conservation, but above all to set up the nursery with the aim of revitalizing its diffusion.
Medicinal plants. The vegetable kingdom provided not only food but also medicines to cure various pathologies. ven today, among the older people living in marginal areas, less anthropized, natural remedies are used. This knowledge is handed down from father to son and in the past also provided employment opportunities, and in some cases even replaced doctors. However, the knowledge and practice of herbal therapeutic properties has historically been consolidated thanks to the great Greek physicians and in Italy, thanks to the Salerno Medical School, whose experience helped give rise to the gardens of the simple folk. Modern medicine also confirms the validity of plant medicines and uses molecules derived from plants.
Plants for vetenarian purposes. Animals reared in farms of the past were crucial for providing food to the family and were a precious workforce in the fields and the driving force for transport. Plants and their “derivatives” come into pharmaceutical preparations to combat animal disease in the farm; for example, using a mixture of oil and vinegar, made for bovine animals, promotes ruminant activity and therefore digestion when it appears compromised. The rural development plan proposed by the agricultural company Hortus Gymnasium intends to contribute to the preservation of that memory and to the enhancement of this knowledge. The collection of Calabrian native medicinal plants, the nursery of medicinal plants and the plantations destined for the extraction of essential oil are realized in this perspective. The most used plant parts for extractive purposes are leaves, flowers, fruits and seeds.
Handicraft and decorative use plants. Plants have found great versatility in their use to support human activities in many areas: just think of the use of bamboo for scaffolding in buildings or, in Italy, the importance they have had in the species of marshes and beyond, for entire communities engaged in the craftsmanship of farm products, such as baskets with branches of willow, chestnut and olive trees. Other plants have dyeing properties: the walnut leaves have always been used by man to give wool a brown color, or the root of the dyeing broom to give the fabrics a beautiful red color. At Christmas, for example, the branches of evergreens, such as holly, are collected for the beauty of their leaves and berries, or the owl-shaped oak-bear that are used to decorate the house. However, in the past these plants also had a propitiatory meaning and served to promote wellbeing and keep the evil eye away. In the corner of the vegetable garden or plant garden, where aromatic herbs were grown, iris rhizomes were often used as bushes with beautiful dark violet flowers and roses were never lacking and were used together with other flowers to adorn the votive bouquets or the country churches. In autumn, for the Day of the Dead, the locals collected white chrysanthemums to adorn the tombs of their beloved ancestors.
“Si hortum in bibliotheca habes, nihil deerit.”
Cicero
If you have a vegetable garden next to the library, you will have everything you need.
