At the Wuhan Botanical Garden
On Wednesday, we visited the Wuhan Botanical Garden during a day-long tour of the city’s cultural highlights. 
Near the entrance, an unusual display of submerged aquatic plants intrigued me. A flight of steps takes you down below the water level to view the tanks of labeled accessions. The display was laid out in different geographic regions of China. Interpretive panels – all in Chinese – no doubt provided educational information. With the warm sun illuminating the display and tiny air bubbles released from the plants rising to the water surface, it was also very beautiful.
Wuhan Botanical Garden is well known for its extensive Actinidia collection of 57 species and 800 accessions. 
Decades of kiwifruit research yielded the ‘Jintao’ yellow-fleshed variety, with proceeds from the sale of the intellectual property rights providing revenue for the garden for years to come. I was accompanied by a guide who took me up to a platform overlooking the expansive living collection. It reminded me of New Zealand kiwifruit production without the familiar tall shelter belts protecting the fruit which can be easily bruised. 
I noticed both the display and accession labels included bar codes.
In another part of the garden we saw a cage over one bed. 
My guide explained that this was an educational display explaining the difference identification characteristics between opium poppy and other Papaver species.
An extensive medicinal garden featured many of the plant species used in traditional Chinese medicine. The Botanical Garden is also involved with researching these in search of modern applications, such as Tripterygium wilfordii – with an English translation as “Thunder of God Vine” which is being used in treating prostate cancer. Peonies were in full flower, adding color throughout the display.
