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Rare plants and rare skills

The graceful and slender silver palmetto, Schippia concolor, is a rare palm found only in the forests and savannas of central and southern Belize that is considered to…

My RBGE Apprenticeship: Glasshouse Rotation – Patricia Berakova

As part of my apprenticeship at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, I have been working for a 13-week period with each of the different horticultural teams, learning as…

Exploring Greville’s Botanical Illustrations

The following blog was written by Connie Ma, a placement student in the Herbarium. As part of my MSc History of Art, Theory and Display programme at the…

Emerge : natural design – a new exhibition at the Open Eye Gallery

RBGE alumni and botanical artist, Marianne Hazlewood has new work on show at the Open Eye Gallery in May. This work has roots in a few areas, emergent…

Last Ent set to repopulate Glen Affric

Sometimes individual trees attain what might be called celebrity status. They become widely known for some particular quality or association. This often relates to historical figures and events…

Towards 3 million specimens: Sphenocleaceae & Montiniaceae

The following blog was written by Rebecca Camfield a digitiser in the Herbarium. Since 2021 we have increased our digitisation capacity with the goal of getting to 1…

Ecologists and Taxonomists Working Together

Ellen Heimpel has just published a paper on the bemba forests of central Africa2 . You can read and download it here. In this article Ellen shows that…

Towards 3 million specimens: Euphorbiaceae

The following blog was written by Linde Hess a digitiser in the Herbarium. Since 2021 we have increased our digitisation capacity with the goal of getting to 1…

John Main DHE, NDH [MHort RHS], FCIHort, SHM

Ex Head of Horticulture at the RBGE John started his long horticultural career in 1957 as an apprentice at Bellgarth Nurseries, Carlisle that specialised in growing Chrysanthemums, Gladioli,…

The unique plant biodiversity of the Central African bemba forests

Deep in the forests of the Congo Basin there is a species of tree, Gilbertiodendron dewevrei, which is doing something truly remarkable. In these hotspots of biodiversity, where…

Elm blossom

If you have ever appreciated elms blooming then you are more observant than most. I don’t mean the splashes of bright green we see in April before most…

Towards 3 million specimens: This lizard’s tail has been snapped before…

The following blog was written by Chris Knowles a digitiser in the Herbarium. Since 2021 we have increased our digitisation capacity with the goal of getting to 1…

Restoring a fern wiped out by collectors and botanists

Oblong woodsia (Woodsia ilvensis), a small, rare mountain fern, was virtually wiped out in the Moffat Hills by commercial collectors responding to the Victorian craze for ferns –…

Growing Connections: Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh and The National Botanic Gardens of Ireland.

The sharing of plants between botanic gardens has long been an essential tool in the cultivation and display of the world’s rare and threatened flora. The plants generously…

Bird burglar caught in the act

Burglary at the Botanics may sound shocking but every spring there is an outbreak of crime. The burglars go about their business with impunity in broad daylight and…

Towards 3 million specimens: Primula vulgaris: A Herald of Spring

The following blog was written by Courtney Kemnitz a digitiser in the Herbarium. Since 2021 we have increased our digitisation capacity with the goal of getting to 1…

Towards 3 million specimens: Digitising Plantaginaceae

The following blog was written by Becky Camfield a digitiser in the Herbarium. Since 2021 we have increased our digitisation capacity with the goal of getting to 1…

Increasing knowledge of Apocynaceae in the seasonally dry tropical forests of the Marañón

In the tropics, there is an important but undervalued ecosystem – Seasonally Dry Tropical Forest (SDTF). The extremely dry climate found in the SDTF results in plants with…

Towards 3 million specimens: Digitising Phyllanthaceae

The following blog was written by Linde Hess a digitiser in the Herbarium. Since 2021 we have increased our digitisation capacity with the goal of getting to 1…

Seedlings of hope

On Thursday 25 January 2024, 43 people gathered at the Little Assynt Tree Nursery, near Lochinver, making a hopeful start to the year by planting elm trees. Elms…