Collection of traditional plants

Museums can also have live collections. The Turku Museum Centre’s collection of traditional plants is a “live gene bank” that includes the ornamental and useful plants in the Kylämäki Village in Kurala.

In addition to the original plants in Kylämäki, the collection also includes native perennials and house plants from Southwest Finland donated to the museum since the 1990s. In the future the collection will also have old varieties of annual useful plants from the Kylämäki garden. This way the collection will be an extensive representation of horticulture in Southwest Finland in the mid-1900s.

Native breeds refer here to the long grown plant varieties and populations adapted to local conditions. These plants are a part of local history and tradition, and by growing them we are sustaining nature’s diversity and traditional landscapes.