During Edinburgh International Science Festival 2013 the Botanics ran an activity trail for the public themed around plant collecting in Malaysia. The trail, called Expedition Botanics, ran for 10 days – 29th March to 7th April – and was completed by 1,841 participants.
The journey through the Glasshouses involved visiting ‘Base Camp’ to find out what equipment botanists use and why plant collecting is so important for developing our knowledge of plant diversity. Participants got to visit a Malaysian village and taste tropical fruits and juices, collect plant and seed samples, identify their collections and finally sow some seeds with the Edible Gardening Project.
Malaysia is a megadiverse country with high species diversity and high levels of species found nowhere else. The Garden’s research on plant families such as sapodillas, gingers, begonias and gesneriads is active in Malaysia and the surrounding countries of Southeast Asia.
Support for this event was kindly provided by Tourism Malaysia.