Category: Other NewsPage 48 of 52

Stories not categories under anything else

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…

Leafing Through Natural Scotland

Over the last few months I have been working with Publishing Scotland to develop an exhibition and book festival at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (RBGE) to celebrate books and…

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…

Expedition Botanics at Science Festival

During Edinburgh International Science Festival 2013 the Botanics ran an activity trail for the public themed around plant collecting in Malaysia. The trail, called Expedition Botanics, ran for…

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…

Where are the insects?

Last year, from its beginning until the end of April 2012,  I had recorded the following numbers of insect species and other invertebrates in RBGE: 3 butterflies; 13…

Solitary bee Andrena haemorrhoa visits Woodsorrel – a first, and a first?

Today I saw a small solitary bee visiting flowers of Woodsorrel Oxalis acetosella in the Scottish Heath Garden. It had a very reddish brown furry thorax and rather…

April birds at the Botanics

A total of 41 different bird species was recorded in, or flying over, the Botanics during April 2012. These included the year’s first migrants, as I’ve mentioned in…

Learning from ash dieback

Resilience noun [mass noun] 1 the ability of a substance or object to spring back into shape; elasticity 2 the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties; toughness [Oxford…

Pine Ladybird seen

A single Pine Ladybird, Exochomus quadripustulatus, was seen today on the bark of one of the beech trees at the top of Stove Brae. This is one of the…

What will Scotland’s favourite plant be?

For The Year of Natural Scotland, RBGE has launched the search for Scotland’s favourite native plant So what might the winner be?  The Scots pine?  The Scottish primrose? …

Bees are beginning to buzz in the Botanics

Slowly but surely bees are beginning to buzz in the Botanics this slow, late spring. As more flowers come into bloom more bees, and more bee species, emerge….

Nice Rhododendron recurvoides Boys

The Himalayan Garden (@The_Hutts) tweeted this great picture of two RBGE staff on a Rhododendron tour run by David Chamberlain. ‘the brothers hairy’ Chris Coatham and David Tricker…

Greater Bee-fly spotted

A Greater Bee-fly, Bombylius major, was spotted in the Copse yesterday and again today, visiting the mass of Pulmonaria ‘Munstead Blue’ near the entrance opposite the path to…

Migrants galore!

The Garden seemed full of spring migrants this morning! I heard at least three, possibly four, different Willow Warblers around the Chinese Hillside and Pond areas. A Chiffchaff…

Exploring extinction risk in plants

Identifying traits that make organisms prone to extinction is an important question in conservation biology. Studies thus far have focused on extinction risks in vertebrates, but we know…

First spring migrant today

A Willow Warbler was heard singing from bushes on the Chinese Hillside this morning (15 April) – the first spring migrant bird to arrive in RBGE this year!…

School Gardening Project finally makes it outside!

Pupils finally had a chance to work on their plots this week due to better weather. We prepared our plots by first weeding them using hand tools and…