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What to do in your Scottish fruit and vegetable garden TODAY!

Ailanthus giraldii

The young growth as bud burst occurs is an intense red. The foliage is divided and this enhances the visual appeal of the emerging new growth. A large…

Strange fruit offer lifeline to rare elms

If you are visiting the Botanics in 2017 you might see some curious objects hanging in the elm trees. This is not an art installation, but in fact…

Fringe

A fine specimen of the evergreen Lomatia hirsuta is awash with flower in the Chilean area to the north of the front range of glass. A multistemmed tree…

An early Geranium

Geranium albiflorum a Eurasian herb that is flowering exceptionally well tucked behind the contemporary Alpine House. A clumping, spreading perennial with a mass of light purple veined flowers….

In memory of Private Duncan Coutts (1892-1917)

Duncan Coutts was born on the 20th June 1892 to John, a garden overseer, and his wife Euphemia (nee Riddel) at Methlick, Aberdeenshire. He was a Probationer Forester…

Thought for Food: Broadening your horizons

Blog by Andy Crofts of the Big Picnic project I think I am an adventurous eater but I’ve always understood that some plants are poisonous and that applies…

Only 12 Seconds To Poop – But Enough Information To Understand An Ecosystem

It may only take a mammal 12 seconds to poop – but poo contains a treasure trove of information about the animal and its environment that can take…

Spring Bird and Garden Walk, 11 April 2017

The following report on this year’s Bird Walk has been supplied by Tamar Duncan. It was a windy day on Tuesday 11th April here at the Royal Botanic…

Original Darwin specimen – Tiquilia darwinii

The Herbarium of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh dates back over 150 years to the mid-19th century and there are new and exciting specimens still to be discovered…

Prickly phyllodes

Acacia verticillata in flower on the front glasshouse border. A mass of mini citrus yellow bottle brushes. The flowers are a mass of densely packed stamens. The sharp…

Cleaning the Schistidium PCRs

Once we realised that most of our plate of Schistidium ITS2 amplifications had been successful, it was an easy decision to process them all for DNA sequencing. If…

Gel electrophoresis of Schistidium ITS DNA

  Once the polymerase chain reaction is over, it’s time to Run The Gel; this is make-or-break time, when we find out if our PCR amplification has actually worked….

Mountain Pulsatilla

Pulsatilla turczaninovii, a plant from  seed collected on the Russian Altay where it grew on the banks of the River Bashkaus. Sown and grown and now flowering on…

Backhouse specimens in the Herbarium of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh

The Backhouse family is more widely known for their nursery based in the north of England. However, several members of the family also collected herbarium specimens which are…

In memory of Private John Hatley (1879-1917)

John Hatley wasn’t at RBGE very long, joining us on 23rd July 1914 as a labourer at the age of 35. Genealogical researcher Garry Ketchen has been able…

March 2017 Garden Wildlife Report

March 2017 was mostly cool, sometimes distinctly chilly, and some light snow fell in the third week. Towards the end of the month, however, there was an abrupt…

Copying moss DNA in the molecular lab

After we extracted a plate’s worth (12 columns by 8 rows, or 96 samples) of Schistidium DNA, the next step in our process is to copy a preselected…

Estates Update 2016/2017

The Estates Department as part of the Corporate Services Division, plans its works around the standard accounting financial year from 1st April to 31st March, and at this…

The trials and tribulations of a moss in the lab: DNA extraction

Just over a week into our current Synthesys-funded Schistidium project, and Wolfgang has picked through piles of packets of mosses, selecting the 96 that we would most like…