Human Flower Project
Hanoi, VIETNAM
Tokyo, JAPAN
Columbus, Texas USA
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
A Garden at the Top of the World
Jim Wandersee and Renee Clary don’t miss much, including a chance to see the world’s northernmost botanic garden, in Tromso, Norway. It’s closed for the next six months, but thanks to the EarthScholars, we visit today.
Himalayan Blue Poppy (Meconopsis sp.)
Tromso Arctic-Alpine Botanic Garden
Photo: EarthScholars™ Research Group
By James H. Wandersee and Renee M. Clary
EarthScholars™ Research Group
This past August we were working in Oslo, so only a thousand miles away.... We just had to see it—the world’s northernmost botanic garden! The Tromso Arctic-Alpine Botanic Garden is, at least in our estimation, the 8th wonder of the botanic world.
Can Tromso, Norway, really stake claim to the world’s northernmost botanic garden? Yes. It is farther north than its two closest competitors—the Polar-Alpine Botanic Garden at Kirovsk in Russia and the Akureyri Botanic Garden in Iceland. For US readers’ geographical comparison, Tromso’s Botanic Garden lies at approximately the same latitude as the northernmost point in Alaska: Point Barrow.