LONDON ¨C Masumi Yamanaka, a resident botanical artist of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, suddenly stops in front of a 16-meter-tall tree and gestures upward.
¡°This is the Ginkgo biloba. She¡¯s over 250 years old,¡± she says proudly as we admire its branches swaying in the breeze overhead. ¡°Did you know her kind was on the planet when the dinosaurs roamed? Isn¡¯t that incredible?¡±
This is how Yamanaka ¡ª the curator of ¡°Flora Japonica,¡± a contemporary botanical illustration exhibition currently showing at the National Museum of Nature and Science, Tokyo ¡ª ¡°introduces¡± visitors to the heritage trees at Kew gardens in London. ¡°I always think of them as female, like Mother Nature,¡± she says as we pause again on a detour to Kew¡¯s Herbarium, this time to greet a grove of giant pines. ¡°Such species have adapted and survived so many environments on Earth ¡ª long before we even existed ¡ª so we really must respect them.¡±
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