Dr Ben Wallace 'An Australian garden in China' NOTE CHANGED DATE

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Thursday, 16 August 2012 - 12:30pm

Following a visit to the Australian National Botanic Gardens in November 2003, Professor Lu Yongxiang, President of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, asked Dr Ben Wallace to create a garden in the South China Botanical Garden in Guangzhou. Opened in 2007, the garden includes Australian native flora and aboriginal cultural elements. There are showy and fragrant plants from the Proteaceae, Myrtaceae, and Fabaceae families, together with ancient ‘dinosaur’ plants such as ferns, cycads and conifers. It has a tropical billabong, shrubby woodland, rainforest and a rock garden. A major feature of the garden is the extensive educational signage, on rocks, plaques, theme signs and plant labels.

Ben Wallace was the Horticultural Botanist at the Royal Botanic Gardens in Sydney (1982-1990), travelling to many Australian as well as overseas locations including Chile, Costa Rica, PNG, China, Borneo, Thailand, New Caledonia, Kenya, Zimbabwe, and New Zealand. He was also Director of the Living Collections Division  at the ANBG (1991-2000), and a member of the Centre for Plant Biodiversity Research. He is a frequent presenter of lectures on various aspects of orchids as well as other plant groups. He operates eco-tours to China, Tasmania and Western Australia.