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Hidden diversity in unexpected places – moss growth on modern building surfaces

Back in 2014, staff in the molecular lab and herbarium at RBGE greatly enjoyed a three-week visit from Austrian Dr Wolfgang Hofbauer. With funding from the EU SYNTHESYS…

A memory

The specimen of Sorbus microphylla agg fruiting profusely in the copse was collected in the Langtang National Park area of Nepal. This is the area devastated by the…

A time to plant

With deciduous leaves colouring and dormancy on its way, now is the time to consider tree planting. Take due account of the weather. Depending on the size of…

Hipster

Planted at the entrance to the John Hope Gateway is Rosa hirtula. A native to Japan where it is found growing in association with, amongst others, Larix kaempferi,…

New leafhopper species for Scotland found at RBGE

On 17 September 2015 I photographed a leafhopper on alder (Alnus glutinosa) next to the small pond near the Botanic Cottage site. The leafhopper had a very distinctive…

Botanics Sparrowhawks – Autumn Action

Although now well past the breeding season if you are lucky you may be treated to a close encounter with one of the sparrowhawks in the garden. They…

A glorious autumn

Colour this autumn has been unrivalled. The warmth from the sun and the dry season have combined to extend the floral season. Take a last walk through the…

Plants from Nepal – a new area at Edinburgh to show them off

There have been Nepalese species growing at RBGE for as long as anyone can remember and at the moment there are 529 accessions of plants which either come…

Carex on Herbaria@Home

RBGE has recently started to explore the use of Citizen Science platforms by providing images and data to Herbaria@Home, a long standing and successful platform for transcribing herbarium…

Boundary best

With the sun shining on the canopy of Acer saccharum we are reminded that the autumn equinox passed and the day length is now shorter than the hours…

First Audio Leaflet: Dawyck Scottish Trees Trail

Apps Apps Apps For several years now we have been looking for a way to make appropriate use of mobile phones to deliver interpretation material. Smart phones really…

Battle of Loos, 25th September 1915

In memory of Lance Corporal William F. Bennett (1889-1915), Private Alan Menzies (1894-1915), Lance Corporal John Stewart (1891-1915) and Private George H. Stuart (1891-1915) In August 1914, RBGE…

Chard

A nutritious and versatile vegetable, also well suited to the decorative border. From a packet of seed and an April sowing the seedlings of Chard ‘Bright Lights’ have…

Gardeners Kitchen – Runner Beans

Runner beans (Phaseolus coccineus) can become overwhelming at this time of year. In this cool, overcast summer it seems like we have been waiting all year for them…

Capturing Genes from Herbaria. IX. Hybrid capture

By mid-May 2015, we had 32 separate Inga umbellifera libraries, 15 generated using the Illumina Tru-Seq Nano library preparation kits, and 17 with the NEBNext Ultra library preparation…

Finding Monocarpus, in the field

Sadly, although not surprisingly, I was not able to amplify the regions of Monocarpus DNA needed to compare it to other complex thalloid liverworts from a 1950s collection that we had…

Botanics bees beat the blues

During the summer of 2015 the Botanics had a major focus on bees with the Urban bees exhibition in the John Hope Gateway and various pollinator-friendly initiatives in…

Really Wild Veg – celery trials 2015

The wet summer may not have been much fun, but our celery has been loving it. One of the real challenges with growing celery on well-drained soils is…

Where the Tropics meet the Arctic – Scotland

Some of the most remote and beautiful wilderness landscapes in Scotland are in the extreme north-west, in Sutherland, so-called from the Vikings who regarded it as the south…