Category: Edinburgh Living LandscapePage 1 of 2

Welcome to ‘The Good City.’

The UN predicts that two out of three people will live in cities by 2050. But will these cities be good places to live? And can they ‘do good’ to our living planet? Our research project – The Good City – aims to find out…

Orchid appears in Living Lawn

Next to the Front Range and within sight of the Library and Herbarium two small squares of lawn have been transformed into flower-rich ‘living lawns’ as part of…

Twenty-five square metres for biodiversity

As the second BioBlitz approaches on 9 June our thoughts are turning to the wild plants and animals that find a home at the Botanics. An incredible 999…

Keep Edinburgh Buzzing! A free online course

Could you identify these pollinators? A brand new, free, online course launches in March 2018.  ‘Keep Edinburgh Buzzing’ is a joint venture between the Royal Botanic Garden in…

Bat recordings yield new Garden bat records

  Leonie Alexander of Edinburgh Living Landscape writes: One of the best times to visit the Garden is after hours and on three recent consecutive nights I came…

What exactly is a lichen?

Lichens are extraordinary organisms. Easily overlooked, and often un-noticed by many people, lichens colonise trees and many other surfaces (walls, pavements, railings) in our urban areas. Did you…

Let us know how it went! Feedback on Lichens Air Pollution Survey

Congratulations on completing your Lichens – Making the Invisible Visible Air Pollution Survey We hope you enjoyed the experience and that through exploring your local area in new…

#myurbanlichen

Just one of the amazing things about lichens is… You don’t have to go to a tropical rainforest, the Caledonian Forest or the far west coast of Scotland…

Lichens & Air Pollution

Outdoor Air pollution Air pollution is a huge global environmental health issue, as recognised by the World Health Organisation.  The air quality in Scotland is generally very good,…

Lichens – Making the Invisible Visible – An Air Pollution Survey

The idea formed quite early on in my TCV Natural Talent Traineeship based at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh  to develop a specific tool kit to help people…

Street furniture

How a particularly grand piece of street furniture such as this one has not been captured on Google Maps I do not know… Almost invisible to the casual…

Happy Hypocenomyce & Dog lichens

A trip to the borders ensued for this surveying site – with Peebles being my destination. After a beautiful but rather bumpy breezy trip on the front seat…

Out in the sticks

A train and bus ride see me heading out west to a air pollution monitoring station out on the edge of a small town.  My bus stop is…

On the Bobby’s watch

Surveying in Alloa as part of my project Lichens as Air Quality Indicators led me to a local police station. This is not my first encounter with the…

With the cherry blossom comes the spring

Under a glorious canopy of blossom I find the Stirling’s automatic air pollution monitoring station, (part of the Automatic Urban & Rural Network).  A rather battered looking station,…

Surveying by the sea

  Situated next to the theatre, this is quite a pleasant spot to be surveying in. I’m at the heart of the Musselbrough hustle and bustle, yet within…

Air pollution & nutrient enrichment

Some sites are very quick to survey.  Unfortunately this isn’t a good thing.  It’s quick only because there are literally NO LICHENS to survey. Trees surveyed in this…

Lichens as Air Quality Indicators

As part of the Edinburgh Living Landscape (ELL), the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh is exploring Lichens as Air Quality Indicators. This is a joint project between The Conservation…

Cars, lorries, planes, buses and lichen surveying

  With the help of the brilliant Lothian Buses journey planner I travel by bus today. Surely it’s one of the hottest days of the year so far. …

Pollution and Pests?

Regularly hitting moderate levels for pollution, as monitored and recorded by the 91 Air Quality Monitoring Stations that are situated across Edinburgh and the central belt of Scotland,…