Study Away: Sustainability in Sweden Blog

Day: June 7, 2025

Learning from Linnaeus

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a view of a botanical garden exhibit in Uppsala, Sweden with green plants, grass, trees, and gravel in the foreground
A unique part of the garden shaped like a tree, with the branches made of pea stone and the leaves made of plant specimens.

(Post and image provided by Grace Moeggenborg)

Today we had the amazing opportunity to explore the Uppsala University Botanical Garden (Linnaean Garden), a special piece of botanical and Swedish history! Founded in 1655 by a professor at Uppsala University, this garden was the first of its kind and was later redesigned and curated by Carl Linnaeus, an 18th century biologist and scientist who created the taxonomy system we now know. Each species was originally cultivated by Linnaeus and organized according to his logic. There are currently over 1,300 plant species in the garden!


We had plenty of time to meander through the garden, seeing peonies in bloom, a host of succulents, and a burgundy-leaved beech tree. We visited the Orangeri, where warm-weather plants are kept inside for the winter and even got to see still-thriving laurel trees in pots, planted by Linnaeus himself! Afterwards, we visited the greenhouse, which was filled with a variety of tropical and desert plants, including a few breathtaking species of carnivorous plants.


Due to the chilly weather, we decided to use the afternoon for exploration of Uppsala or time for homework in between our field trips!

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Trees and Landscapes in Gamla Uppsala

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a group of smiling students and teachers sitting in front of a large grassy mound with a wooden fence right behind them
Our group photo in front of the king’s mounds at Gamla Uppsala, Sweden

(Post provided by Madison Olar, Image by Maddie Green)


Hej family and friends! Today was actually Sweden National Day and it was exciting to see all of the pride that Swedes have in their country. To start off the day we went to the Uppsala Common Garden site where we were met by rows of paper birch trees. These trees were lined up in order with trees taken from the north to the south of Sweden and were part of an experiment. The purpose of this experiment was to see first hand the effects of our changing climate and it was a good use of science communication.

Later we moved on to Gamla Uppsala where we ate our snacks that we picked up at a grocery store on the way there. First we looked through the museum which had a lot of information about the mounds located on the land and the people who built them. The area was an important religious site for the Swedes and it was later discovered that the mounds were graves of the rulers and those of the ruling class. This was found out after an archaeological dig in 1846. After looking through the museum we had a snack break at a small cafe and had our first Friday Fika before walking through the mounds. We walked around the mounds and were stunned by how beautiful they were with the long grass blowing through the wind and all of the wild flowers that dotted the mounds. Then we attempted to take the picture shown above, but the somewhat strong winds were not behaving, so we asked someone to take our picture.

After we got back to the hotel we had a group dinner where we got to talk about our day and have some time to connect with each other.

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