Calling all student poets! Cambridge Botanic Garden poetry opportunity

The aim of this poetry trail is to showcase student writing, draw connections between literature and botany, and provide an alternative way of navigating the gardens and interacting with the specimens it houses.

Drawing on the plant profiles below, you might choose to write about the tree’s specific characteristics, biology, history, usage, plant family or typical environment, or even how it came to the garden. We believe each of these trees has a little story to tell, and we would love to see your poetic tales on what they have to offer.

Poems must be short so that they can be displayed alongside the trees: a maximum of 10 lines. Poems of any form are welcome.

This project is part of the Cambridge Festival Student Creative Team, an initiative to encourage collaboration across Cambridge, involving more students in the festival, and encouraging creativity and public engagement.

How to apply:

Please send your poems to Rachel Armitage (ra571@cam.ac.uk), Laurie Shelly (ls986@cam.ac.uk) and Claire Watt (cmw95@cam.ac.uk) by 1st March. You are welcome to submit multiple poems, but only one per tree.

Plant Profiles

1. Liquidambar styraciflua ‘Worplesdon’

• Also known as ‘American sweetgum’, ‘hazel pine’, ‘satin-walnut’, ‘redgum’, ‘star-leaved gum’, and ‘alligator wood’
• Star-shaped, five-pointed leaves
• Located near the Botanic Garden lake
• Purple and red leaves in autumn 

Further information: https://www.botanic.cam.ac.uk/the-garden/gardens-plantings/trees/liquidambar/

2. Vitex negundo var. heterophylla

• Also known as the ‘cut-leaved chaste tree’ due to the shape of its foliage
• The violet-blue flowers are particularly attractive to bees and butterflies

Further information:

https://www.botanic.cam.ac.uk/the-garden/plant-list/vitex-negundo-var-heterophylla/

3. Tahina spectabilis

• Known as the ‘self-destructive palm’ due to its process of ‘flowering itself to death’
• Critically endangered
• Endemic to Madagascar
• Further information: https://www.palmpedia.net/wiki/Tahina_spectabilis

4. Testrastigma voinierianum

• Also known as ‘lizard plant’ or ‘chestnut vine’ 
• Twists around a tree in the Glasshouse
• Native to Vietnam and Laos
• Rope-like appearance, with glossy leaves

Further information: https://www.gardenersworld.com/plants/tetrastigma-voinierianum/

5. Ceiba pentandra

• Also known as the ‘white silk-cotton tree’
• Large thorns on the trunk
• Cultivated for its cotton-like seed fibre, which can be used insulation, upholstery and buoyancy aids
• Housed in the tropical glasshouse

Further information:

https://powo.science.kew.org/taxon/urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:1166232-2

6. Beaucarnea recurvata

• Wide base (caudex) which stores water, with narrow trunk
• Also known as ‘ponytail palm’ and ‘la pata de elefante’ (elephant’s foot)
• Native to Mexico
• Critically endangered species 

Further information: https://www.gardenia.net/plant/beaucarnea-recurvata-pony-tail-palm

7. Viburnum x bodnantense ‘Dawn’

• Winter-flowering plant (late autumn to spring)
• Fragrant pink and white blooms, bare stems
• Hybrid of two species: V. farreri and V. grandiflorum

Further information: https://www.botanic.cam.ac.uk/the-garden/plant-list/viburnum-x-bodnantense-dawn/

8. Acer griseum

• Known as the ‘paperbark maple’ due to its peeling bark, which resembles thin sheets of paper or curled scrolls as it peels away from the tree
• The wood underneath is a striking, bright cinnamon red
•  Native to China
•  Endangered species
•  From the soapberry (sapindaceae) family, related to other maples, the horse chestnut and lychee

Further information:

https://www.botanic.cam.ac.uk/the-garden/plant-list/acer-griseum/

9. Betula utilis subspecies albosinensis

• Bark colour changes as the tree matures, with peeling silvery patches revealing layers of striking pinks and browns underneath
• Part of the birch family
• Native to China, commonly known as the Chinese red birch

Further information:

https://www.botanic.cam.ac.uk/the-garden/plant-list/betula-utilis-ssp-albo-sinensis/

10.  Pinus nigra subspecies pallasiana

• The Crimean Pine can reach 30m in height and live for over 500 years
• Distinctive ‘plated’ bark
• This particular specimen has a large branch forking out from the trunk which is supported by a sling

Further information:

https://www.botanic.cam.ac.uk/the-garden/plant-list/pinus-nigra-ssp-pallasiana/

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