Client: Brisbane City Council
Location: City Botanic Gardens, Brisbane
Features: multi-level sandpits catering to a variety of children’s wheelchair heights
Materials: Stainless steel, bronze, copper, custom water dripping system
Completed: 2014
The Apparatus for Germination of Achaemienis Ambulatii (Pony Plant) is a sculpture in my ‘imagined histories’ series as well as a bespoke all-abilities playground sandpit. The germinator is the last remnant of the Brisbane Botanic Gardens Achaemienus Ambulatii Germination and Research Facility. Built in 1872, it hoped to bring the Pony Plant, a terrestrial bromeliad and the world’s only known walking plant back from the brink of extinction.
The robust, ambulatory ‘flowers’ could support the weight of a small child. It is perhaps unsurprising that its popularity in gardens and sideshows around the world lead to its eventual demise.
Reviews of the park can be found on Must Do Brisbane and Have Wheelchair Will Travel.