Emergence and transition: 50 years of innovation at Dundee’s Botanic Garden

The University of Dundee Botanic Garden came of age on October 23rd, 2021, marking fifty years of development, within a quiet corner of Dundee’s West End. It was conceived as a resource to support the education of Botany and Ecology students shortly after independent university status was convened by Royal Charter in 1 967, marking its independence with a new direction from its former status as a constituent college of the University of St Andrews. It is now a Garden that is locally and nationally respected for the diversity held within its plant collections, as they have grown and matured into a significant resource. Many years of progressive investment and development, have created a ‘genus loci’ or spirit of place, which visitors enjoy, and students and University staff utilise, in ways that could not have been envisaged at its conception. This is the story of how this space, has become a significant place with impact far beyond its donor institution, through the actions and reactions of people and the environment which they helped to create.