{"id":122,"date":"2021-07-28T15:27:28","date_gmt":"2021-07-28T15:27:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/as.vanderbilt.edu\/clacx\/?page_id=122"},"modified":"2026-06-08T21:53:53","modified_gmt":"2026-06-08T21:53:53","slug":"garden","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/as.vanderbilt.edu\/clacx\/garden\/","title":{"rendered":"CLACX Ethnobotanical Garden"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The Center for Latin American, Caribbean, and Latinx Studies (CLACX) Ethnobotanical Garden provides an interdisciplinary teaching resource for university students, K-12 students, and community groups. The Garden features over 40 species of culturally significant plants native to the Americas, most of which are used for medicinal or culinary purposes.\u00a0 Many plants with medicinal uses, such as beautyberries, cacti, sages, and four-o-clocks, are recognized as ornamentals in the southeastern United States.\"\"<\/p>\n

Other plants in the Garden represent key staple foods or have culinary uses in the Americas, including maize, potatoes, cassava, epazote, and amaranth. This rich \"\"collection of plants provides a focal point for discussions ranging from relationships between people and plants, diet and health, history and globalization to Indigenous knowledge systems, connections between environment, climate change, and biodiversity, and horticulture.<\/p>\n

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The Garden has been the focal point of Vanderbilt undergraduate courses, including Commons Seminars (2017 and 2018), LACX 2106W, and is currently integrated into a CORE 2500 course.\u00a0 Students in these courses help develop digital content on individual plants in the Garden and examine the themes described above.<\/p>\n

Tours<\/h2>\n

From August through October, CLACX offers tours of the Garden for Vanderbilt courses, local school groups, student organizations, and the community.\"\"<\/p>\n

School Field Trips and Community Organizations:<\/u>
\nThe CLACX Ethnobotanical Garden provides a unique\"\" resource for K-12 students and the general public to learn about medicinal and culinary uses of plants in the Americas, and horticulture more generally. If you are interested in bringing students or community group to the garden for a one-hour sensory-immersive tour, contact\u00a0Avery Dickins de Gir\u00f3n<\/a>.<\/p>\n


\nSelf-Guided Tours<\/u>: The garden is open to the public from dawn until<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"dusk. Visitors can use the <\/span>Plant Database\u00a0<\/a>to enrich their experience. We recommend visiting the garden in August, September, or October when the garden is at its height.<\/span><\/p>\n

Virtual Tour<\/u>: Avery Dickins de Gir\u00f3n\u00a0leads Nashville Public Television on a tour of the CLACX Ethnobotanical Garden, highlighting the medicinal uses of the plants. This\u00a09-minute video<\/a> aired live in March 2020, and is a great resource for teachers, <\/span>gardeners, and anyone with an interest in plants! <\/span><\/p>\n

Other short videos on individual plants are available <\/span>here<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

In Fall 2025, one or more tours were led for the following groups:\"\"<\/p>\n