[Fifty years of green memory: nursing care for the environment]

This paper describes the activities related to the 50th anniversary celebration of the Nursing School of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. It aimed at surveying the trees of the florula of the green area that surrounds the School and rescuing the memory of those who planted each specimen. The orphan trees were offered to the teaching and administrative staff for adoption. Adding up the erva-mate and the pau-brasil trees planted during the celebration, there are a total of 100 trees distributed into 18 families and 29 species out of which 15 are native and 14 are exotic trees. The erva-mate tree and its monument represent the landmark of this significant date.