Data Capture Project at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh

2009 ◽  
pp. 77-82
Author(s):  
Natacha Frachon ◽  
Martin Gardner ◽  
David Rae
Keyword(s):  
Genetic Resources ◽  
Research Community ◽  
Royal Botanic Garden ◽  
Data Capture ◽  
Plant Biodiversity ◽  
Botanic Gardens ◽  
Botanic Garden ◽  
The World ◽  
Plant Collections ◽  
Field Notes

Botanic gardens, with their large holdings of living plants collected from around the world, are important guardians of plant biodiversity, but acquiring and curating these genetic resources is enormously expensive. For these reasons it is crucial that botanic gardens document and curate their collections in order to gain the greatest benefit from the plants in their care. Great priority is given to making detailed field notes and the process of documentation is often continued during the plants formative years when being propagated. However, for the large majority of plants this process often stops once the material is planted in its final garden location. The Data Capture Project at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh is an attempt to document specific aspects of the plant collections so that the information captured can be of use to the research community even after the plants have died.

scholarly journals The Value of Community Engagement in Botanic Gardens with Examples from the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh

2017 ◽  
pp. 121-128
Author(s):  
Jenny Foulkes
Keyword(s):  
Community Engagement ◽  
Royal Botanic Garden ◽  
Botanic Gardens ◽  
Botanic Garden ◽  
Environmental Challenges ◽  
Health And Wellbeing ◽  
The World ◽  
The Individual

The Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (RBGE) has community engagement at its core. With health and environmental challenges facing society, its mission “to explore, conserve and explain the world of plants for a better future” is more important and relevant than ever. The established community engagement programme at RBGE includes the Edible Gardening Project and activities at the Botanic Cottage and these are described here. Programmes explore food-growing skills and focus on improving health and wellbeing. Significant impact has occurred at the level of the individual and community, while the wider impact on the health of society and on biodiversity while implied remains to be fully assessed.

scholarly journals Assets and Liabilities:

2013 ◽  
pp. 87-96
Author(s):  
Dave Aplin
Keyword(s):  
Plant Material ◽  
Biological Diversity ◽  
Royal Botanic Garden ◽  
Convention On Biological Diversity ◽  
Botanic Gardens ◽  
Botanic Garden ◽  
The World ◽  
Fit For Purpose ◽  
National Botanic Garden ◽  
Over Time

The living collections of botanic gardens can be described as dynamic, varying over time to suit the demands of the institute. The majority of gardens throughout the world have insufficient resources to maintain ever-increasing collections. In order to keep collections meaningful to research and conservation activities and to distribute plant material in accordance with the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) they need to be carefully directed; a mechanism to facilitate this is the process of evaluation. Evaluation is the periodic assessment of part of the collection to determine whether it remains fit for purpose. If a garden’s aim is to strive at improving the potential usefulness of its holdings then evaluation should be omnipresent.This paper outlines the necessity for evaluation and suggests tried and tested procedures to conduct such analyses. Examples from evaluations carried out at the Royal Botanic Garden, Jordan and the National Botanic Garden of Belgium (NBGB) are cited to illustrate the value of the process.

scholarly journals Mongolian academic botanic garden as an introduction center and ecological resource for plant biodiversity conservation

2021 ◽  
Vol 38 ◽  
pp. 00094
Author(s):  
Genden Ochirbat ◽  
Nanjidsuren Ochgerel ◽  
Victor Kuzevanov ◽  
Luvsanbaldan Enkhtuya
Keyword(s):  
Genetic Resources ◽  
Biodiversity Conservation ◽  
Scientific Knowledge ◽  
Plant Genetic Resources ◽  
Plant Biodiversity ◽  
Botanic Gardens ◽  
Botanic Garden ◽  
Educational Organization ◽  
Rational Use ◽  
Academy Of Sciences

The main results and achievements of the introduction work carried out at the Botanic Garden of the Mongolia Academy of Sciences (BG MAS) for almost 50 years of complicated development with ups and downs are given. It shows modern positioning and value of the BG MAS as the main country’s introduction center, ecological resource and public educational organization, treasurer of the scientific knowledge for the conservation and rational use of plant genetic resources, which contributes to the growing process of new botanic gardens and nurseries formation in Mongolia.

scholarly journals Biological controls in botanic gardens

2020 ◽  
pp. 117-125
Author(s):  
Julian Ives
Keyword(s):  
Biological Control ◽  
Insect Pests ◽  
Royal Botanic Garden ◽  
Botanic Gardens ◽  
Botanic Garden ◽  
Cambridge University ◽  
Plant Collections

Biological control of insect pests in horticulture is evolving rapidly but use in botanic gardens can be difficult due to the variety and extent of the plant collections held at these gardens. This paper describes examples of successful biological control of mealybug species at the Cambridge University Botanic Garden and Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh and looks at some of the challenges to extending the use of such controls in all environments.

scholarly journals Data Capture and Taxonomic Determination of Cycadales at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh

2010 ◽  
pp. 11-30
Author(s):  
James Clugston
Keyword(s):  
Royal Botanic Garden ◽  
Data Capture ◽  
Botanic Garden ◽  
Determination Process ◽  
Second Year

This paper discusses a curatorial review of the Cycadales in the Living Collection at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (RBGE) following the methodology described by Frachon et al. (2009). It provides an understanding of the cycads in the Living Collection and the diversity of the group represented at RBGE. The paper also describes the determination process and any changes in identification during the course of the project. This project was carried out as part of the second year project of the HND in Horticulture with Plantsmanship at RBGE.

The identity of John Rattray, diatomist and collector on the Buccaneer expedition (1885–1886) to West Africa

Phytotaxa ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 408 (4) ◽  
pp. 296-300
Author(s):  
ESTRELA FIGUEIREDO ◽  
DAVID WILLIAMS ◽  
GIDEON F. SMITH
Keyword(s):  
Sierra Leone ◽  
Royal Botanic Garden ◽  
West African ◽  
Botanic Gardens ◽  
Botanic Garden ◽  
The West ◽  
West African Coast ◽  
African Coast ◽  
Royal Botanic Gardens ◽  
The 19Th Century

Herbarium records show that during the second half of the 19th century John Rattray collected several plant specimens at ports of call along the West African coast (Canary Islands, Senegal, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Ghana, São Tomé, Príncipe, and Angola). At the herbarium (K) of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, England, four such specimens are databased, three of which can be examined online. At the herbarium (E) of the Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh, Scotland, 26 specimens are databased, twenty of which are imaged. All the specimens we examined have printed labels stating ‘Collected by John Rattray, H.M. Challenger Commission, Edinburgh’ with only a handwritten indication of the locality, for example ‘Loanda’ (Luanda, Angola). The collecting date has been omitted from the labels and there are no further details on the specimens. An investigation of the literature revealed that there is some confusion regarding the origin of the material and the identity of John Rattray, the collector.

scholarly journals A preliminary investigation into the relationship between plant health and branch labelling technique at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh

2011 ◽  
pp. 179-189
Author(s):  
Paul Bradley ◽  
Robert Cubey
Keyword(s):  
Preliminary Investigation ◽  
Royal Botanic Garden ◽  
Anecdotal Evidence ◽  
Extended Version ◽  
Botanic Gardens ◽  
Botanic Garden ◽  
Web Based ◽  
Label Material ◽  
Preliminary Study ◽  
The Relationship

Anecdotal evidence exists at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (RBGE) to suggest that branches bearing plant labels are more prone to die-back than those without labels. During 2010–2011 a preliminary study was undertaken in order to assess the accuracy of this hypothesis and to investigate the possible causes and viable alternatives. The study focused on whether there were patterns of damage with respect to label material and wire, plant species or the location of plantings. The study involved a survey of the Living Collection in the four RBGE Gardens, a web-based questionnaire sent out to Botanic Gardens Conservation International member gardens and analysis of branch material and labelling wire. This report provides the information obtained when the hypothesis was investigated and makes recommendations. An extended version, along with the data gathered, is available in the Library at RBGE (Bradley, 2011).

Commentary on the general results

1964 ◽  
Vol 161 (982) ◽  
pp. 3-6 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
New Species ◽  
Royal Botanic Garden ◽  
Soil Samples ◽  
Flowering Plants ◽  
Botanic Garden ◽  
Joint Effort ◽  
National Herbarium ◽  
The World ◽  
New Varieties ◽  
The University

As regards the collection of plants, totalling about 3000 numbers, most of the flowering plants and ferns have been identified by the staff of the Royal Botanic Garden at Kew, mainly by Mr Forman and Professor Holttum. We collected, whenever possible, ten to twelve duplicates and most of these are being distributed to the main herbaria of the world. There are still, nevertheless, many specimens which need monographic revision to establish their true identity. It is impossible, yet, to say how many are new. Professor J. L. Harrison, at the University of Singapore, is still at work on his account of the small mammals and their parasites. Mr Askew is at work on the soil samples. For my part, I have studied the fig collections, and there is nowhere in the world, that I know of, with such a rich fig flora as Kinabalu. It has 78 species (15 endemic), and our expedition discovered 2 new species and 4 new varieties, which fit neatly into gaps in the classification which I have been making. The fig insects are being studied by Dr Wiebes, at the National Museum in Leiden, in our joint effort to write the zoo-botany of Ficus . Already, Dr Wiebes has been able to publish a revision of the insect genus solen which inhabits Ficus sect. Sycocarpus ; he recognizes 32 species of which 23 are new, including 10 from our collections on Kinabalu. I am also at work on the fungi, which have to be collated with my earlier Malayan collections. This work, however, means almost monographic treatment of every group. With the great help of Dr Bas, at the National Herbarium in Leiden, an illustrated account of the genus Amanita in Malaya and Borneo has recently been published. We recognize 22 new species out of a total of 30, and this proportion shows the difficulty of pursuing mycology where there are so few names.

scholarly journals The Use of Hand Held Tablet Laptops to Record Living Collections

2007 ◽  
pp. 43-49
Author(s):  
Janette Latta
Keyword(s):  
Mobile Phone ◽  
Royal Botanic Garden ◽  
Botanic Gardens ◽  
Botanic Garden ◽  
Mobile Phone Technology ◽  
Plant Collection

Plant records in botanic gardens are very important and are one of the factors that distinguish them from other types of plant collection. Stocktaking, to ensure that the records held in the database are reflected in the actual plants growing in the Garden, is a particularly important but very time-consuming process. The Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh is experimenting with a ruggedised laptop connected to the main database by using a wireless connection and mobile phone technology so that records can be updated ‘live’ in the garden. This paper describes the issues and lists the specification of the equipment being tested.

scholarly journals An International Plant Sentinel Network

2015 ◽  
pp. 83-98
Author(s):  
Ellie Barham ◽  
Suzanne Sharrock ◽  
Charles Lane ◽  
Richard Baker
Keyword(s):  
Information Exchange ◽  
Invasive Plant ◽  
Plant Protection ◽  
Botanic Gardens ◽  
Sentinel Network ◽  
The World ◽  
Plant Collections ◽  
Control Programmes ◽  
And Control ◽  
International Plant

Invasive plant pests and pathogens pose a major threat to biodiversity around the world, amplified in recent years by the globalisation of trade in plants and plant material and the impacts of climate change. Botanic gardens and arboreta offer a unique opportunity for the identification and further investigation of new and emerging pest and pathogen risks, which can provide valuable information for the creation of prevention, eradication and control programmes. The International Plant Sentinel Network (IPSN) is being developed to provide a platform for coordination, information exchange and support for sentinel plant research within botanic gardens and arboreta. Alongside IPSN Member Gardens, the network includes plant protection professionals and National Plant Protection Organisations (NPPOs) from around the world. The IPSN provides tools which will help to enable gardens to contribute to research by increasing knowledge and awareness among garden staff, developing standardised approaches and providing training materials and methodologies for monitoring and surveying. The network also promotes links with local professional diagnostic support that can help aid the early detection and rapid response to new pest incursions, thus protecting valuable, and often unique, plant collections.

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