Author: Robyn DrinkwaterPage 5 of 34
Catherine is a geneticist studying tropical diversity. She uses next generation sequencing to discover the differences between species and the drivers of evolution in trees and herbs. She is…
To recognise and celebrate International Women’s Day 2017, the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh is showcasing the work of a small selection of our female colleagues and volunteers –…
Charles Darwin Charles Darwin was born on 12 February 1809 (208 years ago this week), and died on 19 April 1882. Although he studied for a short time…
On 1st February 2017 an exhibition opens in the Library Foyer at RBGE displaying work which was produced through association between RBGE and Edinburgh College of Art and…
The RBGE Herbarium is frequently gifted plant specimens from individual collectors. In recent years we have received material from T. Powell (seaweeds) J.F. Dobremez (flora of Nepal) C….
‘I like to plant something every day!’ Ruby Collett was in her eighties when she made this remark to a younger neighbour. A student probationer gardener at RBGE…
David Harris Herbarium Curator My favourite thing in the Herbarium is the labels on the cabinets. They tell us what is in the cabinet and where we are…
Protection of the habitat is a perhaps the most effective method of conservation of plant diversity, yet this alone cannot guarantee the survival of some of our most…
Introduction A rolling condition survey of mounted herbarium specimens was recommended in the 2010 RBGE Synthesys Self-Assessment Collections Care Report. An initial pilot survey was carried out in…
Bertha Chandler (1885-1961) In 1901 did Andrew Carnegie know, by donating $10 million to create the Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland, that his legacy would assist…
Two of our herbarium specimens from the 19th Century are in the new exhibition entitled PLAGUE! at the National Library of Scotland on George IV Bridge. They make…
To tie in with the launch of ‘Plants from the Woods and Forests of Chile’, we wanted to look at some of the material from our herbarium and…
RBGE has recently started to explore the use of Citizen Science platforms by providing images and data to Herbaria@Home, a long standing and successful platform for transcribing herbarium…
Yesterday saw the 300,000th specimen from our herbarium collection imaged and made available on our website. This is a big milestone for the digitisation programme, which has been…
The flowering of our Amorphophallus titanum (titan arum) was a tremendous event with c 19,000 people visiting the Glasshouses to see the plant growing from a small bud…
Here at the RBGE we have just finished digitising our collection of British Rhodophyta (Red Algae), a total of 7850 specimens. Our collection dates from present day right…
As part of the digitisation of the collections held at RBGE we are starting to barcode our microscope slide collections. As part of this we have been investigating…
George Forrest was first sent to China in 1904 by the Regius Keeper Isaac Bayley Balfour. On this and six subsequent expeditions Forrest collected prolifically in NW Yunnan,…
Whilst digitising the British algae, we have been finding some interesting and beautiful seaweeds. This Dilsea carnosa, collected in Shetland, is particularly appropriate with Valentines day this weekend……
Programming is becoming an increasingly useful skill as it can aid in the execution of large, repetitive tasks, and in running analyses of large data sets. Four staff…