From Local Flora to New World Plants: The Transformation of Traditional Garden Diversity in Romania – Grandmother’s Garden and the Historical Garden as Horticultural Models

The research is focused on two traditional gardens belonging to Botanical Garden “D. Brandza” of the University of Bucharest, the Historical Garden and Grandmother’s Garden, from the perspective of taxonomic diversity, origin, status and use of plants. The inventory includes 323 distinct taxon entries, of which 75 are recorded in the Historical Garden and 269 in Grandmother’s Garden, with 21 entries common to both gardens. The two gardens present clear differences in terms of plant function: in the Historical Garden, food and medicinal taxa predominate, while Grandmother’s Garden is characterized by a high diversity of ornamental plants and horticultural forms. The analysis of food plants highlights the presence of both native species and non-native species with a long history of cultivation, illustrating the importance of historical plant circulation between the Near East, Asia and Europe. The subsequent introduction of plants native to the Americas contributed to the diversification of food and horticultural resources. The study highlights that traditional plant heritage is the result of the interaction between spontaneous flora, cultivated plants and horticultural forms selected and propagated over time.