Tag: wildlifePage 1 of 2

Lisa Chilton, National Biodiversity Network Trust

Sharing the data needed for nature’s recovery. As CEO of the National Biodiversity Network Trust (NBN Trust), Lisa Chilton is devoted to the charity’s mission of ‘making data…

Dr David O’Brien, NatureScot

Using evidence-based conservation to inform policy. Nature is everywhere While many think of Scotland as a land of mountains, glens and lochs, in fact most of us live…

Professor Rob Brooker, James Hutton Institute

Harnessing ecological knowledge for sustainable agriculture. Professor Rob Brooker is a plant ecologist working at sites across Scotland. His research focuses on the interactions between plants, which can…

Scent of seduction

With the flowering of our titan arum for the third time this summer minds have been turning to how we can help our plant, fondly called New Reekie,…

Microsculpture on your door step

Guest blog by Ashleigh Whiffin, entomologist (NMS) The breath-taking Microsculpture exhibition of insect portraits opens at RBGE later this month and it’s no secret that I’m a little…

The Urban Kingfisher

One of our wildlife recorders, Lucy Cooke, gives you tips on how to spot kingfishers in the city centre!

The Big Botanics BioBlitz and the 1000th Species

A damselfly basking in the sun photographed Philip Gillespie. One of the ways the garden has already celebrated nature and biodiversity this year was to hold the Big…

The Big Botanics BioBlitz presents Botanics Wild

  To coincide with our wonderful event taking place on Saturday the 9th of June, the Big Botanics Bioblitz, we present, Botanics Wild. Two fantastic opportunities to experience…

Cirsium purpuratum EIKJE 212

A chance encounter with a Japanese Serow made this collection of Cirsium purpuratum in 2013 especially memorable.

The Sweet Chestnut project (The Afterlife of a Tree)

Building on the biodiversity the garden supports  Regular visitors to the garden will have noticed a mature Sweet Chestnut in the later stages of its life with only a…

Let’s Make a Bee Line

This morning around 11am Meg Beresford set off on her ‘Let’s Make a Bee Line’ walk from the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh to Wiston Lodge covering 10km a…

Moth records from the Garden

Moth trapping in the Garden is now happening on a regular basis with the input of Edinburgh Natural History Society and MSc student Tom Dawes. Records from 29th/30th…

Moth trapping at the Garden: Two new records

Monitoring the wildlife in the Garden is an ongoing task that helps us understand the value of gardens, and other amenity greenspaces, for all sorts of different animals….

Bee friendly garden

Watching bees visitng flowers is something to look forward to in the run up to spring. Their choices are far from random and they will specialise in whatever…

New plant for Midlothian found in Botanics

Discovery of a plant previously unknown in an area is not what you might expect to happen within a botanic garden. Such places have large managed collections of…

Moth trapping in the Garden

Thanks to the enthusiasm of James and Thomas from the local Developing Ecological Surveying Skills (DESS) team at the SWT office near the Garden there is now a…

Stonefly is first RBGE insect of 2014

Today I saw my first insect of 2014 in the Botanics. No ordinary fly or early bee; it was a STONEFLY of the genus Leuctra (needle flies), almost…

Lime trees not responsible for bumblebee deaths

The story of dead bumblebees at the Botanics that had apparently been killed by the toxic effect of nectar from silver lime (Tilia tomentosa) http://stories.rbge.org.uk/?p=5319 has taken a new…

Plants & pollinators

According to Horticulture Week, one-third of world food production and 87.5% of all flowering plant species on Earth depend on pollinators. Albert Einstein is credited with saying, “If…

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…