For LGBTQ+ History Month, Chelsea Physic Garden is collaborating with Queer Botany to look at plants and the Garden through a queer botanical lens. LGBTQ+ is an acronym for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, and other sexual and gender minorities. The term ‘queer’ originally meant ‘strange’ or ‘peculiar’ and was used to insult the LGBTQ+ community, but has been reclaimed by activists as a broad term for sexual and gender minorities. Queer Botany aims to share marginalised perspectives, support more diverse representations in the environment and outdoors, and acknowledge connections between queerness and plants.

Queer Botany is a tour with a series of outdoor interpretive displays that tell stories about plants from marginalised perspectives. The focus is on such site-specific wild plants as the dog rose, horse chestnut, coppiced willow and yellow flag. Participants can either learn about them on the project website, find the displays on their own, or be part of a guided tour at the Walthamstow Marshes, northeast London.