The new zoning changes recently approved for downtown — paving the way for taller skyscrapers — could have detrimental effects on the venerated cherry blossoms, weeping willows and tulips of Boston’s Public Garden, advocates say.

The country’s first botanical garden — established in 1837 — is likely to see less sunlight as a result of the code revision, according to Leslie Adam, board chair of the advocacy group Friends of the Public Garden.

Adam, who opposed the zoning overhaul in front of the Boston Zoning Commission this week, argued the state’s “shadow laws” — put in place more than 35 years ago as “essential protections for two of Boston’s most iconic parks,” the Public Garden and Boston Common — are not adequate as written to prevent damage caused by new, taller shadows.

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