|H| Visiting the botanical garden in Tbilisi

To finish our Georgian adventure, we spend our three last days in Tbilisi. Perfect to plan a visit to the botanical garden and meet our botanist colleague Elene again. She is working in the plant and seed conservation department, so we head that way. We finally get to see what botanists do when

they are not out in the field. Elene is specialized in rewilding endimic plants. Endimic plants are plants unique to one region. She is working hard now on rewilding Campanula kachetica. In the past she has successfully rewilded the Amygdalis Georgica. This is a unique Georgian almond tree which had completely dissapeared from the wild due to diseases. Thanks to Elene's careful work this almond tree is now back into nature! Elene considers those trees to be like her babies. In order to rewild a plant, most of the work is about measurements. They have thousands of seeds from the plant they want to rewild which are kept in seedbanks. They first pot those seeds in different kind of soils. Those pots are all exposed to different climate circumstances. After a while they can see in what soil and in which climate the plant grows best. Finding a spot in nature with the same conditions will give the plant the highest chances to succeed in retaking its position in the wild. Hope they will succeed in rewilding Campanula kachetica as well!