Stellenbosch University’s (SU) Botanical Garden (SUBG) has been a centre of research, conservation and education for over a century. In recent years, the annual SUBG Botanical Art and Photography exhibition has contributed to SUBG’s work by magnifying rare and threatened plants and making their scientific work more accessible through art. This year, SUBG intern Celeste de Kock is adding a new perspective to botanical art, using the medium of scanography to portray plants in a different light.
As the Garden’s first science communication intern, Celeste has spent the past six months combining her scientific background with her passion for creative communication. After completing a Master’s in Botany at Stellenbosch University, she went on to study Science Communication at Imperial College London. Her internship has allowed her to explore creative ways to share the value of SUBG’s collections with the public.
One of her most exciting projects is scanography, the use of a high-resolution scanner to create striking, detailed images of plants. Celeste first encountered the technique in 2020, when she came across remarkable images on social media and began experimenting with it herself. She soon discovered that a flatbed scanner could capture the delicate veins of a leaf, the translucence of a petal, and the texture of roots with extraordinary clarity.
“Plants are endlessly inspiring,” she says. “Scanography allows you to pause and notice the details that often go unseen. It’s both science and storytelling.”
Her scanography work at SUBG has mainly focused on the Garden’s Oxalis collection, the largest in the world, with nearly 200 species. Frequently overlooked as common weeds, these plants reveal a surprising elegance and diversity when captured through the scanner’s lens. Working with living material brings its own challenges, from obtaining permits to ensuring specimens are replanted. However, for Celeste, the balance between care and creativity is part of the process.
From 13 September 2025 – 16 January 2026, visitors will have the chance to see her work on display at the SUBG Botanical Art and Photography Exhibition, where selected Oxalis and Gladiolus scans will highlight not only the plants’ beauty but also the Garden’s broader mission to make science and conservation accessible to all.
“Our goal at SUBG, in the words of our late curator Dr Donovan Kirkwood, is to get people to fall in love with plants”, says assistant curator Annerie Senekal. “People are inspired in many ways, and revealing the intricacies of our local flora through scanography is a wonderful way to add to this communication”.
For SU, projects like these underscore the value of innovative communication that bridges the gap between research and public engagement through art, design, and creativity. Celeste’s scanography will not replace traditional approaches such as illustration or photography, but it adds another lens through which the public can experience the wonder of plants.