Meeting with Romeo and Julia

Martti Ahtisaari Institute’s persons paid a visit to the Oulu Botanical Garden in Linnanmaa, where the head gardener Tuomas Kauppila took us around the landmarks of the garden, the pyramid-shaped greenhouses Romeo and Julia.

The Oulu Botanical Garden is one of the northernmost scientific gardens in the world. Its collection of plants is maintained for teaching and research purposes, but it is also open to the public. The collection includes altogether more than 4,000 different plant species and provides thereby an overview of global vegetation diversity.

In the greenhouses Romeo and Julia 1,200 exotic plant species are presented. Some of these are genuine specialties, such as the world’s rarest tree. Sustainability in environmental and other terms is closely associated with the botanical garden. This includes not only slowly growing Northern species, but also tropical plants that could take over the whole green houses in a few years. Another important aspect in scientific botanical gardens is the data records kept of the plants, including full traceability to their origin – something that is not yet possible for example in many business cases.

The visit to the botanical garden offered a possibly to thank Wei Li from the School of Business Administration of the South China University of Technology in Guangzhou City, China, for his research visit at the institute. The visit started a year ago and will end now in November.

Veikko Seppänen