Pharmacy garden explores plant roots of medicine

Pharmacy Garden, seen from Rennebohm Hall. Landscape architect Susan Payne of Ken Saiki Design in Madison designed the garden.

The pharmacy garden outside Rennebohm Hall hosts a couple dozen plant species that are traditionally used for depression, anxiety, menopause, fever, gout and rheumatism. The point, says garden initiator Jeanette Roberts, a professor of pharmacy, is to show how the roots of many medicines lie in the plants around us. UW-Madison researchers are working to discover new meds in bacteria and marine life.

Pharmacy Garden at UW-Madison

Tall, dome-shaped, smoky pink flowers with Rennebohm hall in background.

The root and flower of Joe Pye weed, Eupatorium purpureum, are used to ease urinary problems, kidney stones, cystitis, rheumatism, gout and fever. All photos unless noted by David Tenenbaum/University Communications

Circular planter ringed in limestone with ornate "R" carved in limestone at center.

Center of Pharmacy Garden contains a logo from a Rennebohm's drug store, namesake of the Pharmacy building. The first pharmacy garden in the nation began at UW-Madison more than 100 years ago at the Wisconsin Pharmaceutical Experiment Station.

Cannabis was legal when this photo was taken, though we don't know why it was grown. Source: The Wisconsin Alumnus, Dec. 1914

2 sheds in front of garden that's hard to see.

One of UW's historic pharmacy gardens. Source: The Wisconsin Alumnus, Jan. 1913

Balloon flower, Platycodon grandiflorus, from Asia, was used to treat the common cold.

Four bright orange petals surround yellow pistils and stamens.

Oriental poppy, Papaver orientale, from western Asia, is related to the opium poppy, original source of the pain-relieving opiate drugs.

Small, tube-shaped flowers are maroon, open to pale pink.

Valerian officinalus, garden valerian, is used as a tranquilizer. It comes from Europe and Asia.

Pharmacy Garden, seen from Rennebohm Hall. Landscape architect Susan Payne of Ken Saiki Design in Madison designed the garden.

Green leaves on low-growing, spreading plant, have leaflets opposite each other.

The whole plant of Jacob's ladder, Polemonium caeruleum, was used as an astringent.

Smoky pink flowers with aluminum-and-glass structure crossing picture in background

Joe Pye weed stands before pedestrian bridge to Health Sciences Learning Center and UW Hospital.

'copter and bee seem to be equal size in gap between blooms.

Two airborne marvels -- a medical helicopter heading to UW Hospital, and a pollinating bee -- seem to share the space between Joe Pye weed blooms.

Sign says "Angelica archangelic (Angelica) – Europe and Asia – Traditionally used as a carminative.

Labels at the garden rely on old-fashioned medical terminology. A carminative "is an herb or preparation intended to either prevent formation of gas in the gastrointestinal tract or facilitate the expulsion of said gas, thereby combatting flatulence." That's from Wikipedia (we didn't know what it meant, either!)

Green leaves on bushy, low-growing plant resemble celery leaves.

Angelica is a traditional medicine in Scandinavia, its native region.

The Missouri evening primrose, Oenothera macrocarpa, was once used to treat indigestion.

Reddish-bronze tint to leaves on stout, bushy plant.

Red barberry, Berberis thunbergii, was used as an anti-bacterial and anti-inflammatory.

One purple flower with 5 petals amid small, shiny green leaves.

The lesser periwinkle, Vinca minor, was traditionally used to treat digestive problems and hemorrhoids.

Open-structured, tall plant with buildings in background.

Tree peony, Paeonia suffruticosa, was traditionally used as tonic; it had many applications in Chinese medicine.

Three spires holding green-yellow fruits before glass and brick building.

When steeped in milk, roots and rhizomes of black snakeroot, Cimifuga racemosa, were used to relieve nerve and muscle pain. Signe Skott Cooper Hall, home of UW School of Nursing, is in background.

Purple petals surround orange centers; view is upward toward Rennebohm Hall.

The flowers of purple coneflowers, Echinacea purpurea, are being tested as immune stimulants. Rennebohm Hall in background.