Cherry Laurel (Prunus laurocerasus) : Prunus laurocerasus and Other Species

Abstract

‘Cherry Laurel (Prunus laurocerasus): Prunus laurocerasus and Other Species’ (Sternberg 2018) is a chapter in Botanical Drift: Protagonists of the Invasive Herbarium edited by Khadija von Zinnenburg Carroll. The book explores the historicization and semiotics of species cultivation and destruction in the context of the Kew Garden botany collection. The ‘Cherry Laurel’ chapter describes relationships between species, including human and non-human species, from the point of view of a damaged Cherry Laurel tree located in a field in Essex. The thinking within the chapter was the product of an inter- and multi-disciplinary research project called ‘The Field’ (2008-2017), which was located in a 13 acre site, 1 mile north of Stansted airport in Essex. ‘The Field’ project was initiated by Jelinek in order to explore inter-species interdependence, ecological thinking and also to question the orthodoxies within Green politics. One consequence was the invitation to contribute to the Botanical Drift project.