Valuable gene pools of medieval relict plants in Denmark –
The work of Bernt Løjtnant, consulting biologist
Platanvej 61, 2nd th., 8930 Randers NØ, Denmark
Presented by Lila Towle, Frøsamlerne
’Relict’ plants are remnants ‘left behind’ from larger populations of plants, which have managed to
survive although their environment has changed. This name is more often used for plants which
have survived an ice age in a protected natural refuge. In our case, the focus is on cultivated plants
from the Middle Ages (medeltida trädgårdsväxter in Swedish, for example) as well as the
centuries following. The term sometimes used in Danish is ‘levende fortidsminder’, living cultural
monuments.
The principal modern Danish investigator of these relict plants - consulting biologist Bernt
Løjtnant – over the past 15 years has investigated 2400 localities all over Denmark, at a cost of 1,6
million kroner in out-of-pocket working expenses. Until these investigations, botanists had only
recorded a handful of localities, especially monasteries and manors, and had listed a couple of
dozen plant species. Bernt Løjtnant has inventoried all of Denmark’s medieval monasteries, 300
castles, about 300 farms, 80 mill sites, 60 vicarages (prästgårde), 300 villages, 800 churches... and
more. We now know of more than 270 species which we can call ”relict plants”.
Of course the investigator has to be critical, because it is difficult to prove that a particular plant
actually has survived for hundreds of years. We need other kinds of proof that a plant was grown at
such a time and place. A ‘relict plant’ has to be a non-native species and one which could not reach
the locality unless brought by humans, e.g. without windblown seeds. There must be documentation that the species was cultivated at an early date – for example, early texts and archaeological
remains. It also makes a difference whether we know this plant has survival qualities, such as
species whose seeds can go dormant and survive in the earth for many hundreds of years. Finding
several formerly cultivated plants in a small area is often indicative of an abandoned cultural site.
And we need to know the later history of the locality. If the castle or monastery was abandoned
and fell into ruins at the end of the Middle Ages, and especially if the site is isolated and not later
settled, we can be pretty sure of the age of the plants.
One problem is that plant and history enthusiasts established ”monastery gardens” at several
Danish monasteries many years ago, at the time when the first botanical investigations of cultural
sites had found possible relict plants in situ, and these enthusiasts were usually quite uncritical
about the source of their plants and even the documentation of use during the historical period
concerned. So seemingly old varieties may actually have spread from recent cultivation: ”false
relicts” and a kind of floral pollution of old sites.
The relict plants inventoried by Bernt Løjtnant are not only medicinal plants, although these were
the first to catch the public interest. In addition to 169 medicinal herbs, we know of more than 60
edible crops and some150 plants with primarily ornamental use – people in the Middle Ages
apparently also had flower gardens. There are also plants grown for aroma, cosmetics, dyeing,
beverages, poisons, and magical purposes. These ‘Levende fortidsminder’ still contain a lot of
information about the size, location and contents of medieval gardens, as well as about cultural
practices, and they deserve respect both for themselves and their survival, and for the
ethnobotanical riches which they have preserved.
They are challenged or, too often, threatened both because a ”remnant” is a small population, so
they are mostly quite rare as historical relicts. Also because of the change from – in this case – the
original garden or field to a less favourable habitat. And the habitats where we find them are also
threatened – by changes in use (no grazing) and changes in management (exaggerated neatness,
such as the practice of the Ministry of the Environment using weed killer on the ruins of Aebelholt
Monastery, here in Hillerød, or of many parish councils who spray churchyard drystone walls,
although using herbicides is actually illegal both places), or the draining of wetland habitats.
For the purposes of this meeting, this talk will not be a discussion of environmental preservation as
such – although this is the bottom line if these historical treasures are to be saved. Instead, we can
look at one of the most interesting examples of inventory and registration, and ask whether public
awareness and interest in preservation can be increased through utilization of the story-telling
“levende fortidsminder”. From 1999 to 2006, all medieval localities in the 200 square km. of the
township (kommune) of Mariager (Mary’s Acre’, the site of a late medieval Birgittine convent)
were studied and all relict plants recorded by Bernt Løjtnant and a local botanist. More than 100
relict species, some 2/5 of all those now known, were found in Mariager township – many of these
quite rare in East Jutland.
Mariager Museum has done much to educate the public about these treasures, establishing a
museum garden with all of the relict species found in the market town of Mariager and around the
convent church, and putting out a folder and a poster on ‘levende fortidsminder’. Perhaps we can
also imagine a future collection of seed in this area in collaboration with NordGen, a local niche
production of medieval herbs and vegetables from this seed, and a ‘Middle Ages banquet’ at the
Hotel Postgården, originally a wealthy merchant’s house from 1665. We can hope that initiatives
such as these, although depending on ex situ preservation, could help build local pride and tourism,
and influence both legislation and behaviour toward preservation in situ.
For more on relict plants in the township of Mariager, see Bernt Løjtnant’s article written
especially for this report.