ABSTRACT University botanic gardens have long served as vital infrastructures for botanical education, research, and public engagement, evolving in response to scientific, cultural, and institutional change. This paper explores how these gardens, originally devoted to medicinal plant teaching, developed within universities—from Renaissance humanist institutions to modern research‐driven academia—are shaped by colonial expansion and shifting pedagogical paradigms. Drawing on a global survey and a critical review of historical trajectories, the study investigates their changing functions and organizational identities. Despite their diverse roles, university botanic gardens remain underexamined in higher education and biodiversity conservation discourse. Their strategic potential warrants renewed inquiry, especially in the context of global biodiversity loss, planetary health concerns, and efforts to reimagine universities as agents of social and ecological transformation. By tracing their institutional histories and present‐day challenges, this paper contributes to emerging scholarship that aims not only to historicize their roles but also to generate new questions about their future relevance. Ultimately, it offers a foundation for interdisciplinary studies and strategic planning that reassesses university gardens' capacity to support both human and non‐human flourishing in the Anthropocene.
Jaramillo et al. (Thu,) studied this question.