Month: July 2015Page 1 of 2
The mantra for many years for next generation sequencing has been, like “garbage in, garbage out”, that the optimal starting point is high quality, high molecular weight DNA….
In March this year, having already chosen and obtained the plant material that we were going to use for our NBAF project on using a hybrid bait protocol…
Here is a list of jobs to do in the garden this month: Weed regularly to prevent weeds setting seed for next year. Water copiously if we have…
Having chosen Inga umbellifera as the study organism for our NBAF-funded project to test the use of hybrid baits for recovery of DNA sequences from herbarium material, we…
In recent weeks we’ve seen fantastic progress being made on rebuilding the Botanic Cottage. The final slates are going onto the roof this week, and the pan-tiles are…
About 300 species of Inga (Leguminosae: Mimosoideae: Ingeae) grow in lowland and montane rain forest throughout the humid tropical zone, from Mexico to Uruguay. Most species diversity is…
In February this year, Dr Catherine Kidner, Dr Michelle Hart, Dr James Nicholls and I were awarded an NBAF pilot grant by NERC to explore the use of…
Stephanandra tanakae a deciduous shrub with long arching growth. Native to Honshu Japan where it was seen growing on steep NE facing rocky cliffs at 920m. Here only…
On 21 June crowds flocked to the Garden to take a look at quite a spectacle being contstructed. Over 50 baking teams had been planning, baking and icing…
As part of the digitisation of the collections held at RBGE we are starting to barcode our microscope slide collections. As part of this we have been investigating…
The fashion to breed tighter more compact plants for modern gardens by passed this species from Japan. Hemerocallis exaltata is a vigorous herbaceous plant, the flower spikes reaching…
Since the last post I have kindly been provided with further pictures from the ringing when Will Hinchliffe took the photo he posted on Twitter. Peter Wilson, also…
Twenty-five participants from 13 countries have just attended a symposium on complex thalloid liverworts in Edinburgh #Marchantia2015. The meeting also included two teleconferences (from Australia, John Bowman, Monash…
A recent case of severe skin burns in a 10 year old caused by exposure to the sap of giant hogweed is a reminder that plants can be…
Geranium dalmaticum a close growing, mat forming, species from south east Europe. An easily propagated plant by inserting the semi-woody stems into a pot of compost. Growing on…
One of the difficulties with studying the wild ancestors of domesticated food plants is knowing if plants are truely wild? Domesticated plants will generally inter-breed quite happily with…
The Chusan Palm (Trachycarpus fortune) is names after the plant collector Robert Fortune, who observed the plant on Chusan Island, off the coast of central China in the…
It’s been very exciting the last couple of weeks with the long awaited Titan Arum flowering in the Glasshouses. However for myself it has also been an exciting…
June continued to be rather chilly at the start although there was a brief warmer spell mid-month and again towards the end, when a heat wave was being…
Wool Carder Bees (Anthidium manicatum) have been present in RBGE since 2011. This year the first bees of what will be their fifth season in the Botanics were…