Category: Lowland Tropics HousePage 1 of 2

Lowland Tropics House

The plants on display in this house are from the same geographical region as the Montane Tropics House (South-East Asia). This wet-warm habitat has driven the huge diversity of plants which can be found in this region.

Growing Connections: Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh and The National Botanic Gardens of Ireland.

The sharing of plants between botanic gardens has long been an essential tool in the cultivation and display of the world’s rare and threatened flora. The plants generously…

Stories from the Biomes: My Experience with the Biomes Decant, by Horticulturist Szymon Drozdek

It all started with one houseplant. That one plant, a Crassula ovata (money plant), led me to having one of the healthiest obsessions human beings can possibly have;…

Hedychium thyrsiforme

Pincushion Ginger- Broad jungle like foliage with a dramatic inflorescence with white spidery flowers.  BGE Accession number:19825041 Hedychium thyrsiforme Sm. Living plants of this accession 19825041B G52 Lowland Tropics…

New ginger east of Wallace’s Line

The genus Zingiber is distributed from India to the Pacific but only a few species are known from east of Wallace’s Line, where we discovered this new species…

Ficus benghalensis

1. Ficus benghalensis L. MORACEAE Banyan, बनयान The banyan, a species of wild fig, is one of the most iconic of all Indian trees. Its characteristic appearance as a mature…

Dimocarpus longan

2. Dimocarpus longan Loureiro SAPINDACEAE Longyen, longan; Bengali: ashphal, आशफल A small tree related to the lychee and native of South and South-East Asia. It is cultivated for its…

Leea guineensis

3. Leea guineensis G. Don VITACEAE The name of this genus commemorates James Lee, a Scottish nurseryman, who, with Lewis Kennedy, owned one of the most important of the…

Stephania glandulifera

4. Stephania glandulifera Miers MENISPERMACEAE An extensive climber, which grows from a large tuberous root; it is ‘dioecious’ (having male and female flowers borne on separate plants). This species…

Nesocodon mauritianus

Threatened plants of the world Red List status: VULNERABLE Take yourself to the island of Mauritius located far off the coast of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean. Now…

Alpinia zerumbet

5. Alpinia zerumbet (Persoon) B.L. Burtt & R.M. Smith ZINGIBERACEAE Shell ginger It is not certain where this plant was originally native, but somewhere in tropical South or South-East…

Tacca chantrieri

6. Tacca chantrieri André DIOSCOREACEAE One of the so-called ‘bat flowers’, with brownish flowers surrounded by pairs of paler, petal-like bracts and drooping, thread-like bracteoles. This species occurs from…

Tabernaemontana divaricata

7. Tabernaemontana divaricata (L.) R. Brown APOCYNACEAE Crepe jasmine, moonbeam, East Indian rosebay; Hindi: chandani, चांदनी This small tree is native to India but it is widely cultivated…

Kaempferia rotunda

8. Kaempferia rotunda L. ZINGIBERACEAE Hindi: bhumichampa, भूमी चम्पा This plant is a member of the ginger family from tropical South-East Asia. It is widely cultivated, and possibly also…

A Dark Tale

Tony Bonning tells the a dark tale from a tropical forest.

New Reekie – power plant

New Reekie is still drawing a crowd even though it is now begining to look past its best. Today (30th June 2015) the skirt-like spathe that wraps around…

New Reekie – a toast to the titan arum

The first flowering in Scotland of the world’s largest “flower” is something to celebrate. So what better tipple than the wine produced by the decendants of the plants…

Titan Arum growth – 15th July to 16th August 2011

This is a film of when our Amorphophallus titanum grew a leaf back in 2011.

New Reekie

Summer 2015 will see an exciting botanical first for Scotland when the titan arum (Amorphophallus titanum) flowers at the Botanics. This native of the Sumatran rainforest has been…

Gnetum montanum

Latin Name: Gnetum montanum Markgr. Common Name: Gam nui, Sot nui Distribution: Bhutan, China, India, Laos, Myanmar, Sikkim, Thailand, Vietnam Habitat: Subtropical broadleaf forests Description: Evergreen, climber; branches…