A Paean To Plants

Barely 30 minutes away from the hubbub of central London lies a flora fan’s paradise—Kew’s Royal Botanic Gardens, the largest UNESCO world heritage site in the English capital.

- Neeta Lal

Call it serendipity, but around Christmas time, the gardens nestling in southwest London are awash in a rich tapestry of lasers, lights and installations set against the canvas of a dark dense sky. Lilting Christmas musical scores make the viewing even more immersive. This is the annual ‘Christmas at Kew’ exhibition, which celebrates the garden’s after-dark landscape through works of international artists and architects.

Delightful as the experience is at the night show, it is quite something else to soak in the garden’s splendor in daylight. After all, even Sir Richard Attenborough had described Kew as “the most important botanical institute in the world”. UNESCO declared the garden a World Heritage Site in 2003, in recognition of the importance of its historic landscapes as well as the significance of its work in botanical and environmental sciences.

The first thing that strikes as you enter the 326-acre venue, set in a curve of River Thames, is its Zen-like tranquility. It is so permeating that even the whirligig of planes landing or taking off from Heathrow Airport, located 18 kms away from here, seems to recede into oblivion. “The gardens encompass about 50,000 different species of plants,” a staffer from the Kew Gardens’ office informs us, as we stroll along meticulously laid-out pathways marked by bold signages and surrounded by stellar architectural structures. “Kew has increasingly taken on a leading role in habitat and biodiversity conservation worldwide and its landscape constantly keeps evolving,” he adds.