Category: Other NewsPage 9 of 51

Stories not categories under anything else

Access to Scholarly Information During the Coronavirus Closures

As with all other aspects of our lives, the Coronavirus pandemic has impacted on the scholarly communication process. With most libraries closed, a number of publishers have made…

March 2020 Garden Wildlife Report

March 2020 came in like a rather timid lion, rather windy but not nearly as stormy as February, and went out like a lamb. Weather-wise it was a…

Early Warning Signs

In a time of such unpredictable global conditions, we can’t pull ourselves away from thinking about the timely delivery of RBGE’s newly adopted artwork Early Warning Signs. Taking up a prominent position at the entrance to Inverleith House at the beginning of this year, it seems only too fitting that the spinning ‘climate/change’ (‘change/climate’) sign arrived during a particularly stormy January.

Plants Need Plant

As we all try to manage as best we can through these challenging times both personally and professionally, it’s worth reflecting on the criticality of team work within…

Botanic Cottage Cook Club April 2020

Once a fortnight we hold a cook club at the Botanic Cottage. Anyone is welcome to join us to learn new cooking skills and to enjoy a healthy meal that’s been freshly prepared by the group. Sadly, the garden is now closed to the public during the Covid-19 pandemic, but we won’t let that stop us! Cottage Cook Club tutor Ailsa has prepared some great recipes from store cupboard ingredients to encourage us to keep home cooking and keep eating right. Over to Ailsa…

New Plant Identification App for Nepal

RBGE’s Flora of Nepal team have partnered with vegetation ecologist Elizabeth Byers, Nepal’s Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation, and High Country Apps to produce Wildflowers of…

#plantrainbow – Primrose

The primrose, Primula vulgaris, is one of the most evocative and widely-known heralds of spring. If you are lucky enough to know a wild place where this beautiful…

Sunshine for you!

In early spring, even the smallest bloom is a cause for celebration. Narcissus also known as Daffodils are always the first to arrive in our gardens and what…

Part 2/2: ‘Sensing and Presencing the Imperceptible’, Siân Bowen’s Micro-conference

Alessandra Leruste has been a Volunteer gallery assistant with Inverleith House since 2019. Alessandra has an MA in History of art from the University of Edinburgh and has her own art-writing blog. Here, Alessandra shares her experience from the afternoon of Siân Bowen’s micro-conference at RBGE.

Part 1/2: ‘Sensing and Presencing the Imperceptible’, Siân Bowen’s Micro-conference

Klaudia Jaworska is in her third year at Edinburgh Napier University, studying International Festivals and Events Management and Marketing. As part of her course, she is currently carrying out a work placement in RBGE’s Public Engagement Department. Here, Klaudia shares her experience from the morning of Siân Bowen’s micro-conference at RBGE.

Magnolia sargentiana

Tucked away in the upper woodland garden and easily missed is Magnolia sargentiana. Not as prolific a flowerer as Magnolia ‘Charles Raffill’, the flowers it does produce are…

Learning on the job: students make valuable scientific discoveries

“Hey Zoë, we’ve found a Pinguicula!” “I doubt it, they don’t grow in Belize.” “Well, this is definitely a Pinguicula.” With that conversation shouted across a hillside, we…

February 2020 Garden Wildlife Report

February 2020 will be remembered both locally and nationally for its exceptionally high rainfall, for the frequency of stormy weather, and for its lack of sunshine. There were…

Looking at After Hortus Malabaricus

As a Gallery Volunteer it has been my privilege to spend a good number of hours looking at the diverse range of objects in the artist Siân Bowen’s…

Sibbaldia No. 18 A Plant Health Special

Plants sustain nearly all life on Earth: protecting plants is thus protecting life itself. 2020 has been designated the International Year of Plant Health, and as part of…

January 2020 Garden Wildlife Report

January 2020 was a dull and rather wet month at RBGE. There were only 46.5 hours of sunshine, about twelve hours less than in December 2019, with the…

Siân Bowen’s Leverhulme Research Fellowship Exhibition: After Hortus Malabaricus: Sensing and Presencing Rare Plants

After Hortus Malabaricus: Sensing and Presencing Rare Plants marks the culmination of my four-year collaboration with the Herbarium at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (RBGE). Having held my first solo exhibition in Scotland at Inverleith House at RBGE in 1995, it is wonderful to be able to exhibit here once again. In 2017, I was awarded a Leverhulme Research Fellowship to carry out the project. The Leverhulme Trust is known for supporting experimental proposals with an emphasis on outward facing journeys. The journey that the award facilitated has certainly been extraordinary – opening up possibilities to work with botanists, ecologists, historical researchers, cultural geographers, taxonomists and curators. It has allowed encounters with rare plants in darkened herbaria and light-filled South Indian forests and swamps; epistemologies used to ‘reveal’ specimens and sensory differences between plants’ live and preserved states.

Fields of Plastic?

Inspired by the Think Plastic: Materials and Making exhibition, Fields of Plastic is a display of items from the RBGE Collection in the Herbarium, Library & Archive Cabinet…

Tjipetir – the next chapter…

The Think Plastic- materials and making exhibition which has just opened is a collaboration between artists Lorna Fraser, Carol Sinclair, Fiona Hutchison, Fiona Pilgrim and Carla Edwards and…

IUCN Threatened accessions in the RBGE Living Collection as of 20 Jan 2020 (Staff Conference)

Today in the staff conference Simon was asked the number of threatened plants that the RBGE is growing. This is a dynamic figure as plants at the RBGE…