Search results: "stories from the biomes "Page 17 of 26

Nothofagus betuloides branch failure due to wood decay fungi.

Nothofagus betuloides (Accession: 19665056 A) Unfortunatly a large section of the Nothofagus betuloides in the secret garden has broken. The failure was due to the strength loss effect of wood…

Crarae Gardens: The Campbell Legacy

Redwood groove that is unavailable to the visitors due to unsafe paths At its inception by the Campbells over a century ago, Crarae Gardens’ Reginald Farrer was plant hunting across…

The Systematics Association 2019 Biennial meeting (or, Things to do in Bristol)

I can fairly safely predict that next summer’s top UK destination for the discerning systematist will be the English city of Bristol. Having never been before, I headed down from

Searching for bamboo and giant panda…..poo…..

On a mountain in China a giant panda spends hours sitting eating bamboo but there is no time for a scientist to sit when you are trying to understand panda…

a botanical glimpse

We were delighted to be approached by graduating MA Art, Space and Nature student from the Edinburgh College of Art (ECA), Audrey Yeo. Audrey presented a botanical glimpse as a…

Apple Day 10th anniversary

The Apple Day event held in the Botanic Cottage on 6 October was the tenth Apple Day run jointly by the Botanics and the Royal Caledonian Horticultural Society. As a…

Two Clematis

In an open aspect to the south of the rock garden two Clematis are flowering. Clematis ternifolia, a vigorous grower with lightly scented white star like flowers bearing linear petals….

Lost before found: Was there more than one species in Monocarpus?

…    References Proskauer J (1961) On Carrpos I. Phytomorphology 11, 359-378. On Monocarpus – http://stories.rbge.org.uk/archives/17112 Finding Monocarpus, in the Herbarium – http://stories.rbge.org.uk/archives/17146 Finding Monocarpus, in the field – http://stories.rbge.org.uk/archives/17272…

Alfred Wallace and the Tricolored Jewel

When Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace presented their joint paper ‘on the Tendency of Species to form Varieties; and on the Perpetuation of Varieties and Species by Natural Means…

Progress with the Edinburgh potato

Jan and Liz, Edible Gardening Project volunteers, have been continuing the quest to recreate the Edinburgh potato (Solanum xedinense). A challenge that they face is that potato flowers are extremely…

A visit to the Californian type locality for the hornwort Phaeoceros proskaueri

One of North America’s endemic hornworts, Phaeoceros proskaueri Stotler, Crand.-Stotl. & W.T.Doyle [also known as Paraphymatoceros proskaueri (Stotler, Crand.-Stotl. & W.T.Doyle) J.C.Villarreal & Cargill] was described from plants collected in…

Edinburgh tree data meeting @RBGE – Now 2 Feb (cancelling the 26th Jan) still 13:00 to 15:00

Dear Edinburgh tree data person, I have sent you to this blog page because you have been involved in some correspondence on Twitter about http://contours.org.uk/edtreemap/ You may remember there was…

Lindenberg’s Featherwort – liverwort child of the Atlantic

Geography, and particularly climate, have distinguished the extreme western parts of Scotland from the rest of the country for thousands of years. Many of our rarest plant species are dependent…

April 2019 Garden Wildlife Report

Collared Dove (Streptopelia decaocto), 23 April 2019. Photo Ken Dobson. April 2019 was a mostly cool month with long spells of chilling winds from easterly or northerly points. However, the

RBGE Edinburgh Gin

Edinburgh Gin has teamed up with RBGE to create a limited edition Gin. The Gin is made with plants from The Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. Most of the classic ingredients…

The hidden distinctiveness of a threatened British moss

When conservation scientists are trying to decide which species are most in need of protection, the main consideration is usually how likely they are to become extinct, as determined by…

Two hopeful Hellebores

Agenus of herbs, these two differ in that Helleborusorientalis has no winter foliage and H.foetidus has. H. foetidus isnative to W and S Europe with H.orientalis having a wider distribution…

Generating a phylogeny of Polytrichum using hybrid baits

The current Next Gen Sequencing lab project at the Botanics involves looking at the phylogeny of Polytrichum section Polytrichum, using hybrid capture. Polytrichum commune, photographed by David Bell (David Bell…

Comparative Editions: Ryff’s ‘Kurtzes Handbüchlein und Experiment vieler Artzneyen durch den gantzen Cörper des Menschens…’

By Hannah Swan While browsing our Rare Book Collection, we recently came across a boxed book that was as of yet uncatalogued in our online system, Kurtzes Handbüchlein und Experiment…

A Mystery of Provenance: Boccone’s ‘Recherches et Observations Naturelles’

By Hannah Swan Half-Title Plate Paolo Boccone’s Recherches et Observations Naturelles de Monsieur BOCCONE, Gentilhomme Sicilien…, published in the translated French in 1674 in Amsterdam, offers several tantalizing clues of…