It grows as much as you believe… A love story of an old botanist[김선미의 시크릿가든]

Director Samwoo Lee standing in front of the ‘King Tree’ (Larch) of Gicheongsan Botanical Garden.

Here, there, hop. I think I saw more frogs in one day than I ever saw in my entire life. The mosquitoes that I tried to shoo away with my fan were also very aggressive. No wonder there was a sign in front of Ming-A-Ju that said, “Crush a leaf and apply the juice to mosquito bites.” If there is a utopia for insects, or insectopia, this would be it. Listening to the chirping of all kinds of birds, including cuckoos and owls, I even thought that the city was somewhere in the process of being rewilded.

● The first-generation private botanical garden representing our country

Gicheongsan Botanical Garden in Cheongha-myeon, Buk-gu, Pohang-si, Gyeongbuk. Cheongha (淸河) is a place name that means clear water. Vice-Director Lee Eun-sil (56), daughter of founder Director Lee Sam-woo (83), said.

“This is Araceae. The originally lush leaves are falling over as the fruit ripens. The flower looks scary like a cobra, but it is actually very poisonous. In the past, it was used as poison for the king. Now, after research, it is used as a medicine. If Araceae is the basic species, there is also Araceae that only grows on Ulleungdo. I don’t know if the fruit is carried by birds or wild animals, but since some time ago, it has been growing all over the botanical garden. At first, people did ‘ecological landscaping’ imitating nature, but since then, birds and bees have been taking care of it. It’s really amazing.”

The mark of Gicheongsan Botanical Garden. It is said to be a combination of the ‘key’, which selects only grains with full seeds, and the harp, which symbolizes harmony.

The Gicheongsan Botanical Garden is where Director Lee Sam-woo, a graduate of Seoul National University’s Department of Forestry, transformed an existing orchard into a botanical garden like a wild forest. As a disciple of the late Professor Lee Chang-bok (1919-2003), known as the father of Korean botany, he realized the value of our native plants early on. In the mid-1960s, he came down to his hometown of Pohang and laid the foundation for the botanical garden by planting Japanese maple and elm trees.

When we introduced natural farming methods that do not use pesticides, insects flocked in and the forest ecosystem was revived. People began to appreciate the beauty of our native plants that we had planted and nurtured with great care. Gicheongsan Botanical Garden is the first-generation private botanical garden representing Korea and has become a textbook for botany students. There are about 2,000 species of native plants living on the 20,000-pyeong site, and about 800 of them are rare and endemic plants.

● A guardian of rare and endangered plants in Korea

The purpose of establishing this botanical garden is to ‘contribute to the opening of a Hongik Ingan world where nature and humans live in harmony’. Its representative activity is the ex-habitat preservation of domestic rare and endangered plants. It systematically preserves and propagates wild plants and animals that have become extinct or are endangered in their original habitats due to indiscriminate capture, thereby maintaining biodiversity.

A representative example is preserving endangered plants on Ulleungdo Island, which is close to Pohang. For example, the island firefly tree grows only on Ulleungdo Island in the entire world. This plant, which grows on cliffs and has very weak survival ability, is monitored by specialists on a regular basis on Ulleungdo Island, collected at the Gicheongsan Botanical Garden, and preserved through mass propagation. The history of the plant must be thoroughly managed and registered in the National Plant Species Management System to properly manage forest life resources and prevent imported plants from being disguised as native species and distributed. This is exactly what the arboretum is supposed to do.

● Trees that teach us how to live

A hedge made of ginkgo trees.

The autumn scenery that Director Lee Sam-woo particularly likes. The reddish-yellow maple leaves behind the bench are from the persimmon tree, and the brown maple leaves behind it are from the elm tree. Courtesy of Gicheongsan Botanical Garden

Walking through the Gicheongsan Botanical Garden, you can often see fallen trees that have rotted away. This is because they are seen as a natural cycle in themselves. I also saw a fence made of ginkgo trees for the first time here. Director Lee stood in front of a zelkova tree. “I really like this tree that appears in Park Mok-wol’s poem ‘Blue Deer.’ It lives half the year with almost no leaves. If the leaves grow thick and cast a shadow, other plants cannot grow well, so they yield solar energy. There is much for us humans to learn from the world of trees.”

The ‘Music Concert Under the King Tree’ at Gicheongsan Botanical Garden, enjoyed by over 200 people on the 14th of this month. Courtesy of Gicheongsan Botanical Garden

The 15m tall, 350cm girth Larch, also known as the “King Tree” in this botanical garden, is also a must-see. Its respiratory muscles are so well-developed that it looks like 500 Arhats gathering to hear the Buddha’s sermon. “The place where this tree used to be was not our botanical garden’s property. When we saw a large excavator coming in to build a housing complex, we stopped it right away and took out a loan to buy the surrounding land. I was having a hard time paying the interest, so one day I complained to the tree. Did it understand? Not long after, the tree was featured on TV, and I was able to pay off a year’s worth of interest. Since this tree is a tree of loyalty that repays kindness, I treat it to a mal of makgeolli every year.”

● The potential of ‘K-Eco Tourism’

Red and yellow azaleas blooming at Gicheongsan Botanical Garden.

September is the season of aster (flower pot) at Gicheongsan Botanical Garden. In previous years, after various aster flowers such as red-and-yellow aster and latitudinal aster bloomed in the summer, aster could be seen starting in mid-September, but this year, due to the heat, full bloom is expected from the 21st to early October.

The azalea flowers at Gicheongsan Botanical Garden are expected to be in full bloom by early October. The flower language is ‘impossible love’. Courtesy of Gicheongsan Botanical Garden

Did Seoksan try to hide the sadness of ‘unattainable love’ (flower language) by putting on red lipstick? I hope that the efforts of Gicheongsan Botanical Garden for half a century will not be the unattainable love of a first-generation private botanical garden director. This botanical garden has three generations of workers, from the vice-director’s daughter to his grandson, but compared to the newly opened national and public botanical gardens, the facilities are old and there is no room for investment. Those in the botanical garden industry say, “Gicheongsan Botanical Garden has been maintained until now as the pride and mission of the first-generation private arboretum in Korea,” and “As advanced countries have various types of botanical gardens, it is time for our country to find a way for national, public, and private botanical gardens to coexist.”

Fortunately, the Gicheongsan Botanical Garden is a place with great potential for ‘ecotourism’ (travel aimed at environmental protection and regional development) that raises awareness of the importance of a sustainable ecosystem. The world’s botanical gardens are paying attention to the conservation of rare and endemic plants of Ulleungdo and ESG activities of this botanical garden. I can imagine tourists flocking from all over the world to see plants that can only be found in Korea and to hear the songs of birds that the plants invite.

Places to visit nearby

● Moonlight gathering A famous restaurant near Wolpo Beach frequented by the people of Pohang. The raw fish here is not served in a broth with floating ice. The Pohang style is to mix fresh flounder sashimi with just a spoonful of water. The spicy Gyeongsangdo-style fish stew served with it is also excellent. ● Cheongha Gongjin Market Filming location for the drama ‘Gaetmaeul Chachacha’. The oil market opens on the 1st and 6th. It has been in the same place for decades. Merchants who have turned on the lights are selling vegetables, fish, etc. You can often see foreign tourists who have seen K-drama taking commemorative photos at places like ‘Bora Supermarket’ that were featured on the show. ● Forest Village Garden Pohang City Private Garden No. 1 (Gyeongsangbuk-do No. 6). It is a forest complex cultural space created by Pohang City Forestry Cooperative in 2017. The Forest Village Buffet, which provides Pohang local agricultural products and forest products, costs 8,000 won per person. It is a healthy meal that will truly comfort your stomach. The Forest Cafe, where you can buy various plants in the greenhouse and drink coffee, is a place of healing.

Kim Sun-mi’s Secret Garden >

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Article/Photo Pohang=Reporter Kim Seon-mi [email protected]

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2024-09-22 22:22:31