The Cabinet of Curiosities

What is botanical illustration about?

In the Oxford English Dictionary, we read that:

Botany is the scientific study of plants.

The study of plants has a long history and goes back to 300BC.

Modern botany has contributed much to agriculture, horticulture, plant biology and pathology.

We also read that:

To illustrate can mean: to elucidate a description by drawing or pictures; or to explain or make clear.

In other words, botanical illustration can be described as “the scientific study of plants made clearer by drawings or pictures.”

Françoise Verger, The Cabbage Leaf Issue 0/Summer 2018

110,000 is the number of trees that were used in 2003 to print 13 million copies of Harry Potter. The Guardian, 26 June 2003

30,000,000 More than 30 million trees are cut down annually for virgin paper used in the production of books sold in the US alone. www.ecolibris.net

5,000 million Upwards of five thousand million copies of books are produced annually throughout the world... About three-quarters of all books published come from just ten countries. Books for all, UNESCO publication

1719 In 1719, the French scientist René Antoine Ferchault de Réaumur observed North American yellow jackets, a subspecies of what are known as paper wasps.

”Look at North American wasps,” he said – what you and I call paper wasps. “They make fine paper for their nests by chewing up wood and exuding it. And if they can do that, why can’t we?”

30% Approximately 2.4 billion individuals (30% of the worldwide population), largely women and residents of rural areas, did not have consistent access to nutritious, safe and sufficient food in 2022. The State of Food Security and Nutrition 2023, FAO Report

1,000 Avocado is not green. It needs 1,000 litres of water to produce 1 kilo of avocado (tomatoes: 214 litres). Wikipedia

Two small avocados sold together in a package at grocery stores have a carbon footprint of nearly 850 grams.

The avocado cultivation area across the world was 807,000 hectares in 2020. It was 329,000 hectares in 2000. That spread is at the expense of forest. Courrier International/Carbon Footprint Ltd

150 million Neonicotinoid seeds are now spread on about 150 million acres (61 million hectares) of US farmland, and up to 95% of the pesticide on the seed sheds, polluting nearby soil, water and air. The seeds are so dangerous to wildlife that just one can kill a bird. The Guardian, 10 June 2023

5,000 The National Botanic Garden of Wales has a collection of over 5,000 different plant varieties, including a collection of threatened Welsh plants, and a valuable mix of grassland habitats within Waun Las National Nature Reserve. botanicgarden.wales

87% of UK households have a garden. In data revealed in the 2021 UK census, it was found that the average UK garden is 188m² (2021)

36% of individuals in the UK grow their own herbs, fruit or vegetables in their garden (2022)

46% of gardeners use organic fertilisers instead of those filled with chemicals (2018)

6.5 billion The amount spent on gardening products in the UK per year is expected to reach over £6.5 billion by 2025 (2021) Horticulture Magazine

“Art is embroided in Nature and they who can extract it have it.”

“As I grew older, I realised that it was much better to insist on the genuine forms of nature, for simplicity is the greatest adornment of art.”

“And since geometry is the right foundation of all painting, I have decided to teach its rudiments and principles to all youngsters eager for art.”

Albrecht Dürer (1471–1528)

“The relation between what we see and what we know is never settled. Each evening we see the sun set. We know that the Earth is turning away from it. Yet the knowledge, the explanation, never quite fits the sight.”

John Berger, Ways of Seeing

“The more clearly we can focus our attention on the wonders and realities of the universe about us, the less taste we shall have for destruction.”

Rachel Carson

“A child’s world is fresh and new and beautiful, full of wonder and excitement. It is our misfortunes that for most of us that clear-eyed vision, that true instinct for what is beautiful and awe-inspiring, is dimmed and even lost before we reach adulthood. If I had an influence with the good fairy who is supposed to preside over the christening of all children, I should ask her gift to each child be a sense of wonder so indestructible that it would last throughout life...”

Rachel Carson, 1968

2018 Creation of the ‘Hay Budding Botanical Illustrator Club’ by BOTANY and other stories.

Top tips

Don’t rush – take as long as it takes to do justice to the subject material.

Don’t be scared of mistakes. You’ve got to get to know plants and do a lot of drawing.

Capture things as you see them.

Contain the impatience. Sometimes the process is a lot more fulfilling than the end product.

It’s not always about doing things that you really love – sometimes they don’t work out as a painting.

How to be a Botanical Artist, Kew Gardens

59% The number of Monarch butterflies at their wintering areas in Mexico has dropped by 59% this year to the second lowest level of the endangered species since record-keeping began, experts said, blaming pesticide use and climate change. The Guardian, 9 February 2024

2.5% is the annual fall in the masses of insects over the last 25–30 years. Butterflies and moths are among the species worst hit. The number of common butterfly species fell by 58% on farmland in England between 2000 and 2009. The main cause of the decline lies in agricultural intensification, with plain, bare fields treated with synthetic fertilisers and pesticides. The Cabbage Leaf Issue 03/Autumn 2019

369,400 In May 2016 scientists at the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew published the first study of the status of world flora. They estimated that 369,400 flowering plants were known to science, of which a fifth were in danger of extinction from habitat loss, climate change and other factors. Plant: Exploring the Botanical World (2016)

80 Kenyan flower farm workers earn $100 (about £80) a month picking Valentine’s Day flowers. Al Jazeera, 14 February 2019

70% of the roses sold in Europe are cultivated in Africa, mostly in Kenya. In Kenya the cultivation, which requires a lot of water, is responsible for the gradual drying up of Lake Naivasha. The pesticides, which are used in this cultivation, poison the waters and threaten the flora, the wildlife and the health of the inhabitants. The Cabbage Leaf Issue 01/Autumn–Winter 2018

33% Over 33% of the Earth’s soils are already degraded.

Edinburgh University, ‘Soils and Sustainability’ Programme

2–3cm It takes up to 1,000 years to produce just 2–3cm of soil.

House of Lords Library, 21 January 2020

6.2 million Between 2000 and 2012, 2.3 million square kilometres of forest around the world were cut down. Only 6.2 million square kilometres remain of the original 16 million that formerly covered the Earth.

Wikipedia, quoted in The Cabbage Leaf, Issue 04 / Spring 2020

11 years The IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change) warns that fossil fuel emissions must be halved within 11 years if global warming is to be limited to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.

ClientEarth Communications, 18 February 2022

25% In a soil full of earthworms, the yield climbs 25%.

Le Canard Enchaîné, 7 February 2024

10% At least one-third of wild fish stocks are overfished and less than 10% of the ocean is protected.

UN Ocean Conference, Lisbon, Portugal, 27 June 2022

90% More than 90% of protected river habitats in England are blighted by farm pollution, raw sewage, water abstraction or dredging.

The Observer, 12 August 2023

420 billion Antarctica and Greenland are losing ice mass (melting) at an average rate of about 420 billion tonnes per year, adding to sea level rise.

NASA Global Climate Change

500 As of July 2020, in the counties of Shropshire, Herefordshire and Powys there were 500 farms with a total of 1,420 intensive poultry units/sheds, containing over 44 million birds. It is expected that there are now fewer than two years left to save the Wye from irreversible damage.

The Sunday Times, June 2020/Hereford Wild Trust/River Action

40% of the world’s population do not have access to water in their homes.

Water Aid, October 2019

20% In the perfumes produced by L’Oréal (Trésor, Lancôme, Armani), natural materials only account for 20% of ingredients, the rest being artificial.

The Guardian, 4 March 2014

N°5 The smallest bottle (30ml) of Chanel N°5 – the world’s biggest-selling fragrance – contains the equivalent of 1,000 buds of jasmine flowers.

The Guardian, 4 March 2014

5 plants Certain plants contain naturally occurring soap-like substances called saponins: Soap wort or Saponaria officinalis (roots and leaves); Clematis (leaves and flowers); Amole or Soap lily or Wayleaf soap plant (bulbs); Buffaloberries or shepherdies (fruits); Yucca and desert plants (agave, Spanish bayonet, Sotol, Josuah Tree) (roots). They can be used as a substitute for soap whithout chemical processing.

US Forest Service, FM–RM–VE, Polytunnel Gardening, Chelsea Green Publishing

3,780 litres As per Levi Strauss, over 3,780 litres of water are used to produce just a single pair of 501® jeans. This includes the water needed to grow cotton, which is a very thirsty crop, and the water required to process the fabric.

Make Fashion Better, 12 March 2023

26% The fashion industry is responsible for 8–10% of humanity’s carbon emissions. If the fashion sector continues on its current trajectory, that share of the carbon budget could jump to 26% by 2050.

Geneva Environment Network, 31 July 2023

2.2 million Textiles produce 35% of the microplastic pollution in the world’s oceans (in the form of synthetic microfibres), which would make textiles the largest known source of marine microplastic pollution. That’s about 2.2 million tonnes of microfibres entering the ocean every year.

Wirecutter, 5 August 2021

5.25 trillion pieces It is snowing plastics in the Arctic and raining plastics over the Rocky Mountains, two separate teams of scientists have just discovered. Other recent studies have found microplastics in the Pyrenees, at the bottom of the Mariana Trench in the Pacific – the deepest known point in the oceans – and in nearly all British rivers. Plastic pollution around the world has surged with the growth in single use consumer plastics. About 40% of all plastics are thought to enter the waste stream within a year of their production. There are now an estimated 5.25 trillion pieces of ocean plastics and there will be vastly more: a recent report estimated that by 2025 the quantity of plastic in the sea would treble.

The Times, 15 August 2019

The continual bouquet At the end of her life Colette became crippled by arthritis. She had to spend long hours lying on a divan – which she called ‘le lit-radeau’ (the raft bed). She could be seen with a small movable table across her lap, on which she wrote as if she were in a compartment in a railway train. This was when Mermod, a publisher in Lausanne, had an inspiration which understandably charmed Colette: “Once or twice a week, for a year or more, I shall send you some flowers,” he wrote. “When you feel like it you will trace the portraits of one of these flowers. And then we will make a little volume of them.” Colette was enchanted by the continual bouquet, and her enchantment was to be reflected in Pour un herbier, an exquisite little book made up of 22 short essays. Later on, Mermod published limited editions illustrated by Raoul Dufy in 1947. But it was Manet who was chosen for the English publication under the title of For a Flower Album. This book is not just about flowers and plants. As is quite rightly indicated on the jacket, it “gives us the feeling that we are sitting beside Colette and listening to her reveries.” The book For a Flower Album was found in Lausanne, Switzerland, in a secondhand bookshop called ‘OH 7e CIEL’.

EYE-SEED-YOU by Jackie Yeomans, Earth artist

THE EYE by Ceija Stojka (1933–2013), Gipsy and Holocaust survivor

Ecofriendly plants Hemp is one of the fastest-growing plants in the world and can grow 4 metres high in 100 days. Research suggests hemp is twice as effective as trees at absorbing and locking up carbon, with 1 hectare (2.5 acres) of hemp reckoned to absorb 8 to 22 tonnes of CO2 a year, more than any woodland. Hemp and raffia are, with linen, the most biodegradable fabrics, but only when they have not been treated with chemicals or dye. In their pure organic form, linen and hemp will break down in two months when you compost them.

Conserve Energy Fabrics, The Guardian, 6 June 2022/Citizen Sustainable

80% More than 80% of the world’s population is currently estimated to live under a ‘lit sky’. In the United States and Europe, 99% of the public can’t experience a natural night.

United Nation News, 13 May 2022

2% The amount of artificial light on the Earth’s surface is increasing by at least 2% each year.

Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research

50% About half of the millions of insect species on Earth are nocturnal. Moths and nocturnal-flying migrating birds can be disoriented by light sources and urban areas.

Royal Horticultural Society

80% of the people of the world can’t see the Milky Way.

Jacqueline Yallop, The Guardian, 31 October 2023

2013 Bannau Brycheiniog National Park became the world’s fifth International Dark Sky Reserve.

bannau.wales