The World of Plants event integrates social studies, history, and plant science with a field trip around the world! Students “travel” to Africa, Asia, India, Europe, and the Americas, where they take part in activities that demonstrate how different cultures use plants in their daily lives. Students visit five global tents and participate in 15 different hands-on activities including making tribal masks using African plants, decorating Vietnamese rice hats, creating Indian Rangoli designs and learning about spices, and taking a quiz on Italian pasta.

Every year over the 2 weeks of the event, more than 5,000 school children along with teachers and parent volunteers visit the Botanic Gardens event to experience the World of Plants. The event is targeted to Memphis area school children from grades 2 – 6.

We have received wonderful feedback from parents, teachers, grandparents and Memphis Botanic Gardens about how valuable this interactive, hands-on program and activities were to children who rarely go out of the urban environment and therefore get a chance to experience not only the beauty of nature at the Botanic gardens but also exposure to Indian culture through the hands on Rangoli activity as well the sensory experience at the Spice table. It exposes them to new smells, tastes and ideas of food and culture and how plants provide nourishment but also medicines and other uses.

This event is usually held during the last week of April and the first week of May.