Category: Garden WildlifePage 43 of 68

Bracing a Zelkova sinica

Last week the Arboretum team installed Boa bracing in this Zelkova sinica. The fork at the base of the tree had become unstable in recent high winds so…

Ae Fond Kiss

The late flowering Primula kisoana hails from Japan. A crossing of cultures; the title refers to Burns most recorded song probably well aired in Japan. P. kisoana is…

The People Behind the Plants

Some might argue that the greatest asset of the four gardens of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh are our plants, but as the over-used saying goes: ‘An organisation…

Tread carefully among the alpines ……

…. or you may tread on a solitary bee emerging from its nest hole! If you look down at the cracks between the paving stones in the Alpines…

A scarce hoverfly

This hoverfly is Epistrophe eligans. I photographed it on a leaf in the Rock Garden at lunch-time today. It is apparently a scarce species in Scotland, but I…

St Mark’s Fly invasion begins

This year’s annual emergence of St Mark’s Flies (Bibio marci) has begun today. A lot were seen flying above the path between the Rock Garden and Woodland Garden…

The BioBlitz Banners are up!

The Edinburgh Garden’s BioBlitz is now less than a month away, and large banners advertising the event are now up at the East and West Gates. The BioBlitz…

Age class representation

Continuing the centuries old tradition of plant collecting, staff from RBGE travelled to Japan in 2005 and collected seed. Returning to the Garden this was sown, nurtured and…

New RBGE Alpine House opens

An exciting new development has been realised after nearly a decade of careful planning, design work, fundraising and plant collecting. The dramatic ‘tufa house’, which opens to the…

A descriptive specific epithet

The genus Ribes includes the species that provide red, white and blackcurrants, also showy species of spring flowering shrubs that are found in many gardens. Ribes longeracemosum tucked…

Ducklings have hatched!

A brood of Mallard ducklings hatched on the main Pond at the end of last week. On Friday I counted about seven but I only saw about half…

Starlings – rare visitors!

On Friday I saw three Starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) on the lawn west of the Pond. This rather grainy out of focus image taken  from quite a distance away…

Greater Beefly likes our interpretation panel!

This Greater Bee-fly Bombylius major was seen hovering above the Scottish Heather information panel in the Scottish Heath Garden at lunchtime today. It finally settled on the panel…

Chameleon

Opening in a blaze of glory in late April the foliage of Aesculus turbinata was as red as hot embers in the centre of a November night bonfire….

Soprano Soars at Edinburgh Botanics

Local bat experts released a Soprano Pipistrelle bat, Pipistrellus pygmaeus, in the Garden on Saturday 11th May. The bat had been discovered by Robert Unwin on 12th April….

George V and Queen Mary visiting the Botanics in their Silver Jubilee year of 1935

This footage was found on a reel of 16mm cine film amongst our film collection which we thought consisted mainly of footage shot by plant collectors in the…

Scottish natives on the move

After a few weeks of hard work, landscaping the site where we are creating a new display of Scottish native plants, we have got to the exciting point…

Swifts have arrived – summer is here!

It might not feel like it today, but we had a wonderful warm sunny day in the Garden on Tuesday 7th May. During an early morning bird walk…

BioBlitz posters

Posters advertising the BioBlitz will soon be appearing all around the Garden and in local shops, libraries etc.  Look out for them and tell your friends.  They’ll look…

BioBlitz programme available

Have you heard about the BioBlitz that is taking place at the Botanics on Midsummer Evening Friday 21 June and all day during Garden opening hours on Saturday…