Category: SciencePage 27 of 33
Latest science blog posts from the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh
Tucked away on a boundary wall near the glasshouses, but not on public display, is one of the oldest living Clematis specimens in our collection. This plant was…
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…
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…
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,…
The New to Science blog is a regular post about new plant species as they are being named, described and published for the first time. The only requirements…
This week saw the approval of the Birds of Peramagroon identification app in the Apple iTunes app store. It had been approved for the Google Live Android app…
The Redwoods are a fascinating group of conifers that include the largest and tallest trees on earth as well as some of the oldest. The group, now classified…
An internet search for Sutherland kale produces quite a lot of hits. This leafy brassica seems to be a bit of a sensation among foody types looking for…
The devastating earthquakes which hit Nepal on 25th April and 12th May along with the many significant aftershocks have focussed our attention on the immediate needs of the…
It might come as a surprise to learn that the discovery of species new to science is a regular occurance for scientists exploring plant diversity. At the Botanics…
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…
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…
What sorts of features provide the best clues about whether or not two plants are closely related? Sometimes it’s obvious – most people can correctly recognise a daffodil…
A recently published nomenclatural paper in the Nordic Journal of Botany looks like a precursor for the tranfer of Pulsatilla (Pasque Flowers) as a genus to a section…
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. …
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,…
Some sites you just have to visit twice. Unexpected hail and snow blizzards when surveying are just part of the course, but add strong winds to that, and…
A conversation in the canteen about a 19th wheat specimen from Nepal led on to Henry Noltie asking if I had seen the amazing box of grasses. The…
Born on the 31st March 1853, the son of John Hutton Balfour who was Regius Keeper at RBGE between 1845 and 1879, Isaac Bayley Balfour grew up up in very close contact…
Despite the cold weather colour is coming into the garden. This is Rhododendron X praecox growing by Imverleith House. The photo above was taken on an iPhone and…