Category: SciencePage 25 of 36

Latest science blog posts from the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh

Biophilomatics: A new field courtesy of IKEA?

At the end of last month I spent a Thursday evening at IKEA Edinburgh, not for the usual reason of eating chips in the café with my daughter…

Artists in Nepal: a Modern Thangka

The idea of making a contemporary version of a Thangka painting came when we were visiting Swayambhunath, the Monkey Temple, in Kathmandu. We came across a beautiful old…

Globally rare Scottish moss rediscovered at type locality after nearly 120 years

Despite its internationally important bryophyte flora Scotland has relatively few truly endemic species (perhaps four), and even some of these have a rather ambiguous taxonomic status due to…

Plant Hunting in the Tropics – preparations for fieldwork in Indonesia

This year, RBGE embarked on a 2 year collaborative project with Indonesia’s Institute of Sciences (LIPI) to work towards ‘Flora Malesiana’ taxonomic accounts for Begoniaceae, Gesneriaceae, Sapotaceae and…

Gifted herbaria and volunteers

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….

Full story of the Wentworth elm discovery

Following extensive media coverage of the discovery of the Wentworth elm at the Palace of Holyroodhouse this blog seems like the appropriate place to give a bit more…

Botanical Double celebrates the Britain-Nepal Bicentenary

RBGE staff recently returned from Kathmandu where they had met with colleagues from the Government of Nepal’s Department of Plant Resources in celebration of the historic 200-year relationship…

A phylogeny of Sphaerocarpos

In conjunction with Dr Daniela Schill’s monographic work on Sphaerocarpos, we’ve been building a molecular phylogeny for the genus. We have attempted to extract DNA from 66 accessions,…

This tiny “animal-swallowing” liverwort is spreading rampantly through our forests (and that’s cool!)

Colura calyptrifolia (or to give it its appropriately creepy-sounding common name, the Fingered Cowlwort), is one of our most fascinating UK liverworts. Absolutely tiny (the leaves are about…

Sphaerocarpos, preview to a monograph

The Sphaerocarpales (or “Bottle Liverworts”) form a very distinct group in the complex thalloid liverworts, with ca. 30 species in five genera: originally the group just included Geothallus…

A rapid phylogeny of Marchantia, from the RBGE collections. II. Illuminating our sampling

One of the main problems with sampling largely from herbarium specimens, rather than from material that has been specifically collected for DNA work (rapidly dried in silica gel…

Student projects at RBGE: DNA barcoding of the leafy liverwort genus Herbertus Gray in Europe and a review of the taxonomic status of Herbertus borealis Crundw.

University of Edinburgh/RBGE student David Bell, studying for the Masters degree in the Biodiversity and Taxonomy of Plants; thesis submitted August 2009. Supervisors: Dr David Long and Dr…

The RBGE DNA bank

Over the years, many different people have used the molecular laboratories at RBGE, to work on a multitude of projects on a multitude of plants and fungi. Some…

Hot Summer in the Microscopy Labs

  It has been a hot summer in the Microscopy Labs here at RBGE as students and visitors from all over the world have been busy using our…

A Story Behind Every Plant

  Every wild collected plant in the huge living collection at RBGE comes with a story. Of course, some are more interesting than others… In 2014 Katherine Dixon…

Flora of Nepal: a 200-year connection

A celebratory exhibition of contemporary and historic plant portraits As Britain and Nepal mark 200 years of diplomatic relations, RBGE is celebrating its own unique relationship with Nepal….

Student projects at RBGE: Barcoding British Liverworts: Metzgeria

University of Edinburgh/RBGE student Kimberley Fackler, studying for the Masters degree in the Biodiversity and Taxonomy of Plants; thesis submitted August 2013. Supervisors: David Bell, Dr David Long…

Student projects at RBGE: Barcoding British Liverworts: Plagiochila (Dumort.) Dumort.

University of Edinburgh/RBGE student Lucy Reed, studying for the Masters degree in the Biodiversity and Taxonomy of Plants; thesis submitted August 2011. Supervisors: Dr David Long, Dr Michelle…

Student projects at RBGE: DNA barcoding British liverworts: Lophocolea

University of Edinburgh Biotechnology student Kenneth McKinlay’s 4th year honours project, 2013. Supervisors: Dr David Long, Dr Laura Forrest Kenneth barcoded all six species of British Lophocolea, L….