Botanicsthe Issue 27 | winter 2006

Mountains ofopportunity in Laos

Valuable botanical training for a land short of experts

Argyll’s lost gardenGlenbranter’s exotics remind of a chapter in RBGe’s history

At your service!Meet the new Visitor services team

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Enquiries regarding circulation of The Botanics should be addressed to Hamish Adamson (h.adamson@rbge.org.uk).

Editor Hamish Adamson(h.adamson@rbge.org.uk)

Contributing Editor Ida Maspero(i.maspero@rbge.org.uk)

Designer Caroline Muir(c.muir@rbge.org.uk)

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Contents

In this issue ...

4 Laos, land of mountains … and opportunityBotanical training for a country rich in biodiversity but lacking resources

8 Argyll’s lost gardenExotic spring colour in a wooded glen tells a chapter of RBGE history

10 World’s gardens share a vision for educationRBGE Education staff report back from the BGCI Congress

11 New voyage for Darwin’s discoveriesUnprecedented rearrangement of RBGE’s herbarium specimens

11 Nepal in picturesAn invaluable gift to the Garden of 5,000 colour slides

12 At your service!Meet the new Visitor Services team

13 Innovation and perfectionExhibitions explore human truths and natural perfection

14 Gifts to the GardenWelcome funding for bright ideas

14 First Minister endorses Garden’s GatewayJack McConnell visits the Botanics and pledges support for ambitious project

14 Inspirational tales for PatronsThe Annual Patrons’ Dinner

15 GreenfingersAn evergreen rhododendron gives structure in winter, colour in spring

15 Sustainable fun at Home ShowRBGE’s stand at the Ideal Home Show Scotland

the genetic diversity that underpins the diversity of life and our own existence. Where do botanic gardens fit into these enormous global challenges? The answer is that, increasingly, botanic gardens are joining forces and working in partnership to protect the plants of the world.

Recently, in Dublin, I co-chaired (with Dr Hesiquio Benitez Dias from Mexico) a meeting convened by the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) to review progress on the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation (GSPC). It was apparent that not only has the GSPC brought botanic gardens together, it is also connecting them in beneficial ways with other agencies concerned with biodiversity and sustainable livelihoods.

In this issue of The Botanics you can read about our capacity building efforts in Laos, which serve as an excellent example of how a garden in Scotland can make a contribution to life on the other side of the world. You will also read how, through a renewed emphasis on looking after our visitors and developing our outreach and communication programmes, we hope to have increasing influence closer to home.

Botanic gardens of today are concerned with practical ways of changing lives. The Stern Review reminds us of the need for change, but I believe that greener, more energy-efficient lives need not be any less enjoyable or prosperous and that changing the way we live our daily lives will create new technologies and opportunities, especially in a country so rich in renewable energy resources.

Prof Stephen Blackmore Regius Keeper

The recently published Stern Review on the economics of climate change has focused political and media

attention on the global impact of human activities since the industrial revolution. Much of the discussion has centred on greenhouse gas emissions, but many significant changes have taken place during the same brief period of history, including the loss of about half of the world’s forests.

Like our consumption of fossil fuels, deforestation has had profound effects on the balance of nature, affecting the carbon cycle, water cycle, soil erosion and the survival of species. It remains to be seen how effectively humanity will respond to these challenges, but strategies to mitigate the impact are already being developed. Governments around the world are committed to reducing the rate of biodiversity loss by the end of the decade, while ‘Countdown 2010’ commits European governments to have taken the necessary actions to halt the loss of biodiversity by 2010.

Are we making progress towards these vital but ambitious goals? Some assessments suggest that the rate of destruction of natural habitats is slowing down in many parts of the world, but we still have a long way to go if we really are to stop losing species, habitats and

Cover: The fruit of Aphanamixis polystachya, growing in the forests around Ban Mak Pheuang, near Nakai Nam Theun protected area, Lao People’s Democratic Republic. This small tree has a very wide distribution in tropical Asia, from Sri Lanka to New Guinea. The timber is used in house building and furniture making, while oil extracted from the seeds can be used in medicine and for making soap.

Above: Regius keeper Stephen Blackmore, right, with Robin Hanbury-Tenison OBE at the Patrons’ Dinner.

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Final grazing place for Pri-moo-la

Pri-moo-la, the Garden’s entry for this year’s successful city-wide CowParade, has found a fitting final

grazing place at an undisclosed location “in a meadow with other cows for company”. The undisclosed bidder paid the Cattle-log price of £4,000 at a glitzy auction at Prestonfield, Edinburgh, on 7 September with Ally Logan as auctioneer and over 400 guests, including Lord Provost Lesley Hinds, Ian Rankin and Vladimir Romanov. A total of 62 cows were auctioned; 75% of the £252,200 raised went to CowParade’s chosen charities: OneCity Trust and VETAID.

News

Sri Lankan show shines at Festival

In August, nearly 3,000 visitors came to the Botanics to see Finding Marina, this year’s

Edinburgh Fringe show by Sri Lankan company Children of the Sea. The evocative torch-lit promenade performance was in part a sequel to the troupe’s 2005 post-tsunami show Children of the Sea, but dealt with the even darker issues of strife between rival communities within one country and the tragedy of child soldiers on the front line.

Loosely inspired by Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet and led once again by renowned Maori actor Rawi Paratene, Finding Marina received the special UNESCO Light of the Festival Award.

Accolade for Wight book

RBGE’s Dr Henry Noltie received the prestigious Stafleu Medal of the International Association

of Plant Taxonomists at a meeting of the Linnean Society of London in October. The medal, awarded annually ‘for an excellent publication dealing with historical, bibliographic and/or nomenclatural aspects of plant systematics’, was presented to Henry for his book The Botany of Robert Wight.

The book, published in 2005, lists the 1,267 plant species described by Wight, a prolific Scottish botanist who worked in South India from 1819 to 1853. The work also provides a chronology of Wight’s life, a gazetteer of his collecting localities and a list of his collaborators in India and Europe.

A three-part work, including a biography of Wight and a lavishly illustrated volume of some of the botanical drawings made for him by the South Indian artists Rungiah and Govindoo, will be published in May 2007.

First Memorial Medal winner

In October, Lizzie Sanders became the proud inaugural recipient of the Mary Mendum Memorial Medal for Botanical

Art. She received the medal from Curator David Mitchell at an intimate occasion in the Garden’s iconic Palm House. Among the guests were the husband, John, and daughter, Jo, of the late Mary Mendum, respected RBGE taxonomist and botanical illustrator. Lizzie, pictured here on the right with John and Jo, was awarded the medal as winner of Botanical Image Scotia, the first formal botanical art competition of its kind in Scotland, held at Ingliston Showground during Gardening Scotland 2006. A collaboration between RBGE and the Royal Caledonian Horticultural Society, the competition attracted top contemporary botanical art from home and abroad, and looks set to prosper in 2007.

RBGE’s first-ever set of educational posters was published in November, providing an exciting new teaching

resource for schools. Developed by the Garden’s Education team, Focus on Plant Biodiversity is a set of 20, A2 full-colour posters, clearly illustrated with images from RBGE’s own slide library, photos taken on expeditions, specially commissioned photos, as well as images from under the microscope. The posters support teaching and learning about plants and biodiversity, and cover plant groups, plants parts, plant reproduction and biodiversity for Scottish Curriculum Guidelines 5–18 and Schools’ Curriculum in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Each set includes background notes for teachers, providing a wider scientific context.

Plant posters for classrooms

the Focus on Plant Biodiversity poster set isavailable at £�0 plus postage and packing.Contact the Publications Office on 01�1 248 2991 or email pps@rbge.org.uk

Laos, land of mountains . . .

Laos is exceptionally rich in biodiversity, but lacks sufficient means, including enough skilled scientists, to document and conserve its plant life for the future. Now, an innovative project based at the Garden is helping to change all that by providing botanical training for local people and by ‘repatriating’ valuable data. Ida Maspero reports.

and opportunity

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At the heart of continental South East Asia, landlocked and flanked by Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam

and China, Lao People’s Democratic Republic (PDR) covers 236,800 sq km – slightly larger than Britain – but has only five million inhabitants, giving it the lowest population density in the region. It is a mountainous country with abundant natural resources, upon which about 75% of its mostly rural population depend for survival. Virtually closed to foreigners for several decades following the end of the Vietnam War, it is one of the least known biodiversity hotspots in the world.

In the early 1990s, however, the Lao government began a programme of reform, and the country started opening up to foreign visitors. The first trickle of tourists and backpackers found a place where people still lived by subsistence farming, and traditional Buddhist ways and village life from another era seemed untouched by Western influence.

Significant areas of primary forest remain but biologists know little about the animals and plants that inhabit them –botanical work had been virtually absent in the country since World War II. It is clear, however, that pressures of development and exploitation are steadily chipping away at the swathes of remaining forest.

As part of its reform, the Lao government revised its conservation policies. It called in the help of international biologists, including

Laos, land of mountains . . .

botanists, to help ascertain the diversity of its forests and make plans for their conservation. Recognising its natural wealth, Lao PDR set about creating a number of National Biodiversity Conservation Areas (NBCAs) in the early 1990s, and signed up to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in 1996 and the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) in 2004.

Shortage of skillsIt soon became clear that the country simply did not have the botanical expertise or facilities to document its abundance of plant life thoroughly. RBGE tropical botanist Mark Newman, who first travelled to Laos in 1999 to work on a biological survey of wild cardamom plants in northern Oudomxay and central Vientiane provinces, explains: “Though local people have in-depth knowledge of plants in their area, especially those that are useful to them – a kind of home-grown, practical botany – we realised that there were virtually no botanists with a grounding in taxonomy who could relate the local names of plants to internationally accepted scientific names. This lack of professionals is due to the small population, historic isolation and shortage of tertiary education in the country.

Development and exploitation are steadily chipping away at the swathes of remaining forest.

Opposite: Stands of Pinus dalatensis, previously thought to occur only in Vietnam, were found growing on an escarpment in the south of the Nakai Nam Theun protected area by park wardens on patrol. Below: Ban Mak Pheuang, a typical rural Laotian village at the edge of Nakai Nam Theun.

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“There also was no fully-fledged herbarium to aid the identification of plants, nor useful identification guides and other botanical information in Lao. The only Floras for the region, Flore Générale de l’Indochine and Flore du Cambodge, du Laos et du Vietnam, are in French, a language no longer widely understood in this former colony, and focus mainly on Vietnam, where the majority of plant collecting in the region has been done.”

With obligations under international treaties such as the CBD, the Lao government was anxious to address this shortage of expertise and called in the help of international partners, among them RBGE. In 2001, the director of the National Agriculture and Forestry Research

Institute signed a five-year renewable Memorandum of Understanding with RBGE to provide training in tropical botanical taxonomy, and plans began for the delivery of a

programme of training in plant collection and herbarium techniques.

In April 2004, with funding from the UK Darwin Initiative, a three-year project based at the Garden and entitled ‘Taxonomic training for a neglected biodiversity hotspot in Lao PDR’ kicked off, with Mark Newman and conifer expert Phil Thomas as co-ordinators.

The project concentrates on the Nakai Nam Theun protected area in Khammouan province, identified as biologically important by the Lao government. Plans to build a large hydro-dam prompted the development of conservation actions to protect the watershed, and a survey of animals in the area. “The survey revealed the presence of interesting large mammals, such as deer-like bovids, and the vegetation was interesting too,” says Mark.

Though focusing on Nakai Nam Theun, the project is delivering skills and resources of use to conservation planning for the whole country. “There are several strands to the project,” explains Mark. “The core aim is to train around 30 key Laotians in the collection of plants in the field, and modern herbarium techniques. The trainees include staff of the National University of Lao PDR (NUoL) and the Forest Research Centre, as well as wardens and rangers of the protected areas. The training would give them the skills to survey, identify and document the plant life of their country, and to train others.

“Practically, the training sessions involve taking eight to ten trainees at a time out into the forests of the national protected areas such as Nakai Nam Theun for up to three weeks or so, during which we collect plant specimens using accepted techniques. Then, we return to the NUoL in Vientiane, where we work with the material we have collected to learn plant taxonomy and herbarium techniques. So, the trainees are

The training would give them the skills to document the plant life of their country, and to train others.

top to bottom: Rare cycads and orchids, harvested for medicines, are sold at markets such as this one on the roadside near Gnommalat, Khammouan; Aeschynanthus sp. nov., a new species, first collected in October 2005 from the slopes of Phou Yang in Nakai Nam Theun, recently flowered in the research glasshouses at RBGE; Vichith Lamxay, senior lecturer at the NUoL, with a specimen of Fissistigma collected in Nakai Nam Theun; trainees collect plants in the wetlands of Nakai Nam Theun.

developing skills for the whole process, from start to finish.” Three such two-stage sessions have been run by Mark and RBGE botanical trainer Kate Armstrong, along with senior Lao colleagues.

Valuable data, ‘new’ species An important spin-off of the project is the massive amount of useful plant material and data being gathered during the field training. A preliminary checklist of plants for the Nakai Nam Theun region is being drawn up, and statistics collated so far indicate that many plants recorded during fieldwork represent new records for that province (i.e. plants not previously documented as occurring there); some are also new records for the whole country

and species new to science.

Among these first national records are two conifer genera, Amentotaxus and Cephalotaxus, and some 15 species including the rare conifer Pinus dalatensis, previously thought to occur only in Vietnam, and at

least three new species: a Begonia, a Gentiana and one in the gesneriad genus Aeschynanthus.

The plant specimens collected on the field trip are bolstering the country’s modest herbaria, based at the NUoL and the Forest Research Centre in Vientiane. Ultimately, say Mark and Phil, their aim is to help create an up-to-date, verified national database of indigenous plants – including those considered threatened – an absolute essential for conservation planning.

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To this end, historic data of Lao plant records held in Paris, Leiden and elsewhere are being ‘repatriated’ – handed to the herbaria in Vientiane – and the data being gathered on field training sessions is also being supplied to the herbarium. RBGE is helping to train university staff in the use of software to manage data efficiently. This training is giving several Laotians the chance to travel to Edinburgh and work in the high-tech environment offered at RBGE.

From September to December this year, Soulivanh Lanorsavanh, a biology lecturer at the NUoL and also responsible for the management of its herbarium, visited Edinburgh to work with staff and meet UK contacts. His trip was funded through a Darwin Fellowship, a spin-off grant from the Darwin Initiative. As part of his four-month Fellowship, Soulivanh will spend January in Bangkok, gaining experience and building relationships with his Thai counterparts.

“Soulivanh’s month in Bangkok represents yet another dimension of the project, that of nurturing regional collaboration and skills-sharing between botanical institutes in Indochina,” explains Mark. “We are actively seeking further projects in Lao and Cambodia.”

Useful plants enjoy attentionThough the project focuses mainly on training, particular groups of economically useful plants have enjoyed special attention: a better understanding of their distribution, status and use in Laos will ultimately ensure that they are sustainably used and managed. Identification guides, in Lao, for selected groups of economically important plants are being prepared, for use by forestry officials and others. A conservation assessment of rattans for the whole country has been prepared by experts from the Forest Research Centre. Soulivanh is working on an identification guide to climbers in the genera Fibraurea and Coscinium, used as medicinal plants

and hard to tell apart. Trees in the genus

Aquilaria, when infected with a certain fungus, produce agarwood, a highly prized, fragrant resinous material used

for incense. Widely exploited throughout South East Asia, the tree is CITES listed. The problem is that the one species producing the highest-quality agarwood is often confused with its close relative in the genus Gyrinops, leading to the other species being needlessly chopped down. “By helping them to properly identify the correct tree species, trials to cultivate agarwood will ultimately be more useful in cultivating high-quality agarwood and slowing the demand for wild trees,” explains Phil.

Groups of economically useful plants have enjoyed special attention.

What is the Darwin Initiative?The Darwin Initiative is a small grants programme that funds biodiversity initiatives, with the aim of promoting biodiversity conservation and sustainable use of resources around the world. The initiative was launched at the Rio Summit in 1992 and is administered across all of the UK by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra). The types of projects eligible for Darwin Initiative funding are those that deliver institutional capacity building, training, research and environmental education or awareness, and work to implement the Convention on Biological Diversity.

Approximately 70 research, conservation and education organisations in the UK are involved with the Darwin Initiative, and invariably all projects work with partners in the relevant countries. At present, five Darwin-funded projects – working with partners in Lao PDR, Peru, Nepal, Turkey and the Congo – are based at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. Several more projects have been completed in countries as diverse as Vietnam, Bhutan, Chile and the Yemen. Most of RBGE’s Darwin-funded activities focus on capacity building – training people and developing local resources and facilities.

Phase two of the Darwin Initiative was launched in November 2002. The new phase includes a commitment to increase the funding for the Darwin Initiative to £7 million a year from 2005/6. The Darwin Fellowship scheme was introduced as part of phase two as well as extended funding for certain projects to enhance their impact.

A strong feature of Darwin projects is the involvement of partners within host countries or communities, ensuring lasting benefits for local people and their environment. Applicants for Darwin funding are required to demonstrate involvement of partners in host countries and a well-considered exit strategy to ensure a positive and lasting legacy.

Above: Trainees press plant specimens during a field trip to Nakai Nam Theun, designed to familiarise them with field identification and plant collection techniques.

Below: Soulivanh Lanorsavanh, right, from the National University of Lao PDR, in the research glasshouse at Edinburgh with RBGE botanists Phil Thomas and Mark Newman.

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“A spring walk up the steep glen takes you through mixed woodland with bluebells

and then, surprise surprise, you come upon these wild, untidy, splendid rhododendrons ablaze with flowers of red, purple, pink and white, a shock of colour in the green forest,” says Mary Thomson, local resident and former voluntary guide at nearby Benmore Botanic Garden. “What’s really striking is the wildness of these shrubs.”

Glenbranter is a popular woodland managed by Forestry Commission Scotland near the village of Strachur, about 20 minutes’ drive from Benmore, on the Cowal Peninsula. A number of

walking trails start from the Lauder car park at Glenbranter village and wind up the narrow glen to where the Allt Robuic tumbles down in waterfalls. On the way up, sprinkled among the remnant native oakwoods and plantation, are clusters of exotic plants.

The mystery of how a number of Sino-Himalayan rhododendrons (not to be confused with the invasive Rhododendron ponticum) and other ericaceous shrubs, along with conifers and deciduous trees from East Asia, came to grow ‘wild’ in this glen is intimately connected with the early 20th century history of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh and the finds of the well-known plant collectors of the time.

“The late 1800s and early 1900s were exciting times for botanic gardens such as RBGE, with hundreds of interesting and novel plant species being brought back from the East by now legendary plant collectors – the likes of George Forrest,

Reginald Farrer, Frank Kingdon Ward and Ernest ‘Chinese’ Wilson,” explains Archives Librarian Leonie Paterson, who has been investigating the story of Glenbranter.

Many of the Himalayan plants required particular climatic and soil conditions – well-drained slopes, lime-poor soils and quite a bit of rain. Sir Isaac Bayley Balfour, RBGE’s Regius Keeper from 1888 to 1922, wished to investigate their potential value for horticulture and forestry, and was eager to establish an experimental outstation on Scotland’s west coast, where suitable growing conditions may be found.

At the time, RBGE had close ties with forestry interests, and in 1920, Balfour began discussions with the newly formed Forestry Commission to set up a trial site on the west coast. He retired in 1922, but his successor, William Wright Smith, shared his vision, and soon the arrangement was finalised.

Argyll’s lost gardenThe show of riotous colour provided by several hundred rhododendron species is a highlight of any late-spring visit to Benmore Botanic Garden near Dunoon in Argyll – visitors come from far and wide to enjoy this spectacle. At the same time, a little further up the road in a narrow valley, bloom clusters of exotic shrubs which very few people know about. Ida Maspero discovers the hidden history of Glenbranter.

Above and right: Native oak and mixed woodland enfold Allt Robuic in picturesque Glenbranter; local resident Mary Thomson.

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Logan Botanic Gardenis home to the first example of peat wall gardening, created in the 1920s by brothers Kenneth and Douglas McDouall, owners of Logan Estate at the time, to grow new introductions from China and the Himalayas. The peat-walled beds offer

moist and acidic growing conditions, similar to those of high-altitude mountain meadows. Refurbished twice since part of the original estate became Logan Botanic Garden in 1969, the Peat Walls are planted with Meconopsis, primulas, trilliums, Gaultheria, dwarf rhododendrons and other low-growing ericaceous species.

Dawyck Botanic Garden’sRhododendron Walk was started in the early 1900s by the Balfour family, and is planted with many of Ernest ‘Chinese’ Wilson’s introductions. The original estate had been the property of Mrs Alexander Balfour and her son FRS Balfour since 1897. They built on the plantings of

previous owners, adding hundreds of rhododendrons and thousands of bulbs. Balfour subscribed to plant-hunting expeditions, and many trees and shrubs introduced by ‘Chinese’ Wilson were planted at Dawyck. In 1978, FRS Balfour’s son, Colonel Alistair Balfour, gifted part of the estate to the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh.

Benmore Botanic Gardenis home to an array of Sino-Himalayan plants, including over 250 Rhododrendron species, many collected by the legendary plant hunter George Forrest. At RBGE’s two other Regional Gardens, the living legacies of intrepid collectors who scoured the mountains

and valleys of East Asia for interesting plants may also still be seen. These plantings also tell stories of innovation by the previous owners of the properties.

Left: In the 1980s, Ian Sinclair, then Supervisor of Benmore Botanic Garden, counted 33 rhododendron species growing at Glenbranter. Among these relics of RBGE’s trial plantings are Rhododendron campanulatum (left) and Rh. decorum (above right) seen here at Benmore.

“In the early 1900s, the 14,000 acre (5,670 hectare) Glenbranter estate was owned by the well-known musician Sir Harry Lauder,” says Leonie. “After the estate was acquired by the Forestry Commission in 1921, a plot of 50 acres (around 20 hectares) in the glen was assigned for the trialling of exotic trees and shrubs – not just those with horticultural interest, but also newly introduced trees of potential use to forestry.”

Among the myriad of historic documents held in the RBGE Archives, Leonie has unearthed several ‘dispatch books’ dating from the early 1920s, in which are recorded the exotic specimens sent from RBGE to Glenbranter for experimental planting in the course of 1922 and 1923.

“Many of the plants originate in the Himalayan regions of China, India, Nepal and Burma, and predictably Rhododendron species feature heavily in these dispatch lists,” says Leonie. Bayley Balfour had devoted himself to studying this genus, and at the time RBGE was a leading ‘clearing house’ for new rhododendron introductions.

While several species are named, some are simply recorded in the books as sp. nov. (new species) or as a collection number beside the name of the plant collector. “Among the plant hunters noted in the dispatch books are Forrest, Kingdon Ward, Farrer and Roland Cooper,” Leonie points out as she scans the hand-written pages. Several exotic coniferous and broad-leaved trees were dispatched too: Abies, Larix and Picea species as well as Betula, Prunus, Eucalyptus, Cotoneaster and Sorbus.

The trial plot was managed as cheaply as possible. Evidently, specimens were sent over to Forestry Commission staff for planting and then left to grow wild. Harold Fletcher’s book The Royal Botanic Garden 1670 – 1970 described the arrangement as follows: “The ground would be planted with conifers and other trees, rhododendrons and other shrubs of horticultural interest, and all would be allowed to develop naturally in sites chosen for their special requirements. Operations… would be confined to establishing young plants… and to clearing away occasional scrub and bracken…”

It is not known exactly how many species or individual plants RBGE sent for planting at Glenbranter. Nothing more seems to have been sent after July 1923, and ultimately the experimental plot fell into disuse in 1924, when Harry George Younger gifted his family’s nearby Benmore Estate to the nation and negotiations began for part of it to become an outstation of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh.

Regius Keeper Smith recognised the advantages of an outstation at Benmore Estate: accessible property closer to the main road and to Dunoon with its ferry links. What’s more, the policies boasted an interesting collection of well-established shrubs and trees, notably the avenue of sierra redwood trees (Sequoiadendron giganteum) planted in 1863. Unlike Glenbranter, the property was already worthy of public visitors, so it seemed like an altogether more sensible location for a new botanic garden.

In 1929, the policies of the estate officially became Younger Botanic Garden (now Benmore), RBGE’s first Regional Garden. While it is likely that some plants were moved from Glenbranter to the new botanic garden, it seems many were left behind to grow wild, where today their vibrant, exotic flowers surprise and delight springtime visitors to this quiet glen.

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Delegates from RBGE presented the Garden’s latest initiatives in education. Schools Education Officers Susie Kelpie and Cath Evans presented the recently published Focus on Plant Biodiversity poster pack, designed for use in the classroom. The product of two years’ work, it generated plenty of interest, with copies being taken back to gardens as far afield as Spain and Canada.

RBGE Head of Education Leigh Morris presented a paper on further education at the Garden and Head of Interpretation Ian Edwards, with Sandy Tanck from Minnesota Arboretum, held a workshop called ‘A sense of wonder: creating engaging exhibitions’. Building on RBGE’s close relationship with Royal Botanic Garden Serbithang in Bhutan, Ian and Cath supported RBG Serbithang’s Wangmo Moitra in a presentation of her work with Bhutanese schools.

One of the sessions at the Congress focused on the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation (GSPC) Target 14:

The Botanic Gardens Conservation International (BGCI) Congress on Education takes place every four years. This September it was held in Oxford, and RBGE Education staff attended to present the Garden’s own initiatives and draw inspiration from other botanic gardens. Education Co-ordinator Emily Wood reports back.

‘promoting education and awareness about plant diversity’. In May 2006, RBGE had hosted a meeting to address the UK’s

response to Target 14, and four similar meetings were held in the USA, China, Indonesia and Brazil.

The conclusions of these five Target 14 meetings, presented at a break-out session of

the Congress, were remarkably consistent. The challenge facing plant conservation is that people are increasingly alienated from plants. As societies become more urbanised, plants are no longer important to daily life, field trips are dropped from school curricula and people stop noticing plants. However, this also gives botanic gardens a common cause, and in working together they can strive to make a difference.

These messages are central to the role of RBGE’s Education Department. The inspiration gained from attending the Congress will have long-lasting effects, and we all returned determined to make sure that no visitor leaves the Garden without at least a little more appreciation for the importance of plants.

World’s gardens share a vision for education

The theme of this year’s Congress was ‘The nature of success, success for nature’. Christian Samper, Director

of the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, opened the Congress with a reminder that there are 250 million visitors to the world’s botanic gardens each year. This puts us in a unique position to challenge our visitors and open their eyes. The Congress was our opportunity to share good practice and form links with other projects around the world.

There was a wealth of ideas, both practical and visionary, from an astonishing range of countries: creative activities for families with children from Japan, attitude-changing participatory work with young people in South Africa and, from Russia, ways of training the mind to grasp the enormity of climate change.

The challenge facing plant conservation is that people are increasingly alienated from plants.

Above: BGCI Congress delegates tour the glasshouse at Oxford Botanic Garden. Left: Members of RBGE’s Education team at Oxford, from left to right: Suzanne Harris, Cath Evans, Jacqui Pestell, Leigh Morris, Susie Kelpie, Laura Cohen and Emily Wood.

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New voyage for

Darwin’s discoveries

An operation of military precision is in progress to move the delicate specimens from their traditional

holding places in 4,000 protective metal cabinets, as the Garden breaks the tradition of how botanical institutes store their precious collections.

In a radical shift, RBGE has become the first botanic garden of its stature to move away from the 150-year-old ‘Bentham and Hooker’ plant classification system for its herbarium collections. The comprehensive reallocation has been made to reflect advancements in scientific knowledge since the advent of DNA testing in plants. To make a seamless change to a state-of-the-art APG (Angiosperm Phylogeny Group) system, utilising new molecular data, the Garden has twice surveyed and mapped out the positioning of every one of its specimens.

“This is a massive change in the way we organise our collection and the decision to undertake such an overhaul was not taken lightly,” says Herbarium Curator David Harris. “There is good reason why the Bentham and Hooker system has survived so long – these Victorian botanists were remarkably accurate for their time and most plant species do remain in the families recognised by them. Nevertheless, science continues to evolve: botanists

Nepal in picturesThe Garden recently received an invaluable gift – a collection of 5,000 colour slides by leading botanist Tony Schilling, documenting the plant life of Nepal, Bhutan and China.

Three million pressed plant specimens – including several dating back to Darwin’s voyage on the Beagle – are being meticulously moved in a landmark rearrangement of RBGE’s Herbarium, explains Shauna Hay.

“The collection of 5,000 colour slides is a truly magnificent resource, especially for the Flora of Nepal

project based at the Garden,” says Flora of Nepal project co-ordinator Mark Watson, “and complements the Nepalese collections of Adam Stainton. Tony’s personal archive and botanical papers, relating mainly to Nepal, accompany the extensive collection of images.

“Tony Schilling’s long relationship with Nepal started in 1965 when, on secondment from Kew, he helped establish the National Botanic Garden at Godavari. He travelled extensively, collecting plant material to be cultivated both at Godavari and back in the UK. Subsequently, Tony has led many botanical groups to Annapurna and the Everest regions, collecting plants and building up a remarkable photographic record. He has set a very high standard in the remarkably detailed annotations on each slide, which considerably enhance their scientific value.

“Among the personal papers are many documents relating to his first two years at Godavari − an important record of the establishment of a botanic garden in a developing country. Tony has also generously donated an original watercolour of Rhododendron decorum painted by Reginald Farrer in the field during his last expedition to Burma. This will rejoin the other paintings recently given to RBGE by the Farrer family.”

RBGE is the first institution of its size to embark upon the transition.

have been trained at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh for over 300 years and we’d like to ensure the present generation will be taught in a place at the forefront of botanical research, where the Herbarium follows the most up-to-date reference system.

“We now know, for example, that nutmeg is much closer to cinnamon than Bentham and Hooker had appreciated, so that will be reflected

in the new layout of the Herbarium. Another case in point is the plane tree and the lotus flower: these two don’t look similar but we now know from DNA that they are closely related. Our new system reflects such revisions in our understanding.

“RBGE is the first institution of its size to embark upon the transition: only the smaller herbaria of Utrecht University in the Netherlands and Yale University in the United States have made the move to date,” David points out. “Because of the enormity of the task, we enlisted input from colleagues at the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, Missouri Botanical Garden and various universities around the world. It is not clear who else is going to do it next, it is not a decision to be rushed. However, we have had strong encouragement and we are aware that our move is being watched with interest”.

inset: Rhododendron arboreum, photographed at 9,000 feet in the Himalayas, 1977.

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“Coffee time,” says Alan Bennell with feeling, filling the kettle before we climb the stairs

to his office. It’s 11.15 am and the Head of Visitor Services was at his desk at 7.30 am this morning to write a speech for a delegation visiting the Garden from Nanchang, China.

Since then he has delivered the speech, had several meetings, collected the latest batch of visitor questionnaires from the East Gate and arrived back at his desk at 20 Inverleith Row in time for this interview.

He’s just explaining the exciting challenges posed by his newly created post when a smiling face appears round the door and an unexpected visitor pulls a striking plant photograph out of his briefcase. “Have you a spare corridor for exhibitions?” he asks. “Come back at one o’clock,” says Alan.

This is business as usual for the former Head of External Affairs who has just taken on the role of assessing, developing, and co-ordinating the visitor services at the four Gardens. Alan’s long career at RBGE – by February 2007 he will have clocked up 31 years – has taught him that chance encounters can bring creative results. The botanist who specialised in mycology has the knack of infecting others with his enthusiasm for the Garden. “I am passionate about the place,” he admits, “I reckon I have up to ten years to make a difference and I intend to make full use of my three decades of experience.”

That means taking a dispassionate look at the way others view the Garden (hence the questionnaires designed to find out exactly who visits the Botanics and what they think of it). All four Gardens hold a four-star tourist attraction rating from VisitScotland, but if they upgrade outdated facilities, says Alan, they will gain the five stars they deserve.

Alan’s computer screen displays the detailed strategy he has produced “to join the dots” between science, education, horticulture, interpretation, retail

and catering. “The Garden shines on the global platform. But let’s get it right at home too. When the new Gateway building opens we want to be sure everything, from signage to toilets, meets the same high standard,” he says and then leads the way to the team who will help him do that.

Meet Vlasta Jamnicky, Visitor Services Manager, who has been here since 1 August, and Max Coleman, Science Communicator, who arrived two days

ago. Coincidentally, they know each other from student days at RBGE nine years ago. Since then, Vlasta has worked with a rainforest education charity near Reading and helped rehabilitate a botanic garden in Bosnia after the war. Now her wide-ranging role involves planning the signage required to lead visitors both towards and round the four Gardens. Communicating science to many different non-specialist audiences is the challenge for Max. He brings experience of working with volunteer tree wardens and schools on tree and woodland related projects in the Natural Heritage section of the City of Edinburgh Council.

As well as planning new events, trails, leaflets and guidebooks, they are both keen to use new technology to get the Garden’s message across. While Vlasta is exploring ‘electronic chalk boards’ Max will be investigating the potential for live audio-visual links between Edinburgh and the Regional Gardens at Benmore, Logan and Dawyck, with a view to international links in the future.

By now it’s nearly one o’clock, Alan’s next visitor is on the doorstep and that coffee is probably still waiting.

At your service!

The Garden’s new Visitor Services team combines three decades’ intimate knowledge of the Botanics with a fresh look at what visitors expect, and how technology can enhance their experience. Fay Young meets the team.

“The Garden shines on the global platform. But let’s get it right at home too.”

right: The Visitor Services team, left to right – Max Coleman, Alan Bennell and Vlasta Jamnicky – discuss interpretation in the Temperate Palm House.

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Douglas Gordon, born in Glasgow in 1966, is one of Scotland’s most celebrated and respected

contemporary artists. He has a long-standing association with the Garden, having exhibited here three times before: in The British Art Show (1995), Family (1998) and Evergreen (2005).

Superhumanatural, a major retrospective of Gordon’s work, is a collaboration with the National Galleries of Scotland. It is the first exhibition to occupy three Garden venues – Inverleith House, the adjacent former wash-house building and the Caledonian Hall where Gordon shows a large video projection, Between Darkness and Light (After William Blake) (1997). At Inverleith House, a new work contains all of his text works Pretty much every word written, spoken, heard and overheard from 1989 until now… (2006), whilst another new work Plato’s Cave (2006) is shown in the Wash-House. A century-old apple tree from the Garden at Inverleith has been used in Cranach’s Tree, located in the Royal Scottish Academy buildings on the Mound, where Gordon’s exhibition also takes place.

Even a former wash-house is used for Scots Turner Prize winner Douglas Gordon this winter.

Collaboration, innovation and a new venue for art

Photographs reveal nature’s infinite perfection

“I once picked up a leaf and held it up to the sun. I have been looking at patterns ever since, fascinated

by the intricacy and perfect detail that light reveals everywhere in nature”. This is how Edinburgh photographer Kenny Bean remembers beginning the creative study of natural patterns in plants and insects that culminates in this winter’s exhibition, INFIN8.

The images come from inside plant stems and flower buds as well as from the surface of insect skins. The huge photographs reveal the enormous amount of detail that can be discovered at high magnifications. The plant sections are scanned using a digital microscope and the images are made by painstakingly stitching upwards of 30 high-resolution images together.

“The huge diversity of life is what makes this world so interesting for me, yet I sometimes take it for granted that this is an infinite natural resource,” says Kenny. “I worry that we as a species have already destroyed so many other species because of our insensitive use of a shared habitat. Maybe someday I will do something about it.” INFIN8 is on in the Exhibition Hall from 11 November 2006 to 7 January 2007.

Superhumanatural is followed by two exhibitions – photographs by Juergen Teller and sculpture by Andrew Miller. Teller is one of the most exciting artists working today and is best known for his photographic work for iD, Elle, The Face and Vogue. For his first exhibition in Scotland he has selected a variety of photographs from a prolific output – from intimate portraits to still lives and images of nature.

Teller works in a characteristic style and tries to capture the underlying nature of his subject, rather than just surface appearance. The actress Isabelle Huppert, photographed by Teller many times, has said: “He doesn’t give you time to think about what you are going to do. He anticipates your slightest movements and inner thoughts, and that’s how he manages to capture this incredible truth in bodies, in faces.”

Superhumanatural is at Inverleith House, Caledonian Hall and the Wash-House from 2 November to 14 January 2007. Juergen Teller exhibits on the first floor of Inverleith House from 27 January to 25 March 2007, with Andrew Miller’s Mirrored Pavilion on the ground floor. The galleries are open Tuesday to Sunday 10am to 3.30pm; admission is free.

Above left: Douglas Gordon, Plato’s Cave, 2006. Courtesy of the artist and RBGE. Above right: Juergen Teller, Young Pink Kate, London,1998. Courtesy of the artist.

Above: Castor oil fruit by Kenny Bean

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Gifts to theGarden

The Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh welcomes grants and donations to help continue its commitment to plant conservation, educational programmes and scientific research in 40 countries worldwide, and also to provide all visitors to its four Gardens with a unique experience. Recent gifts and grants include the following:

● A grant of £40,000 from the Scottish Executive’s Environment and Rural Affairs Department (SEERAD) was awarded to Dr Pete Hollingsworth, in collaboration with Dr Johannes Vogel at the Natural History Museum London, to assess the extent of hybridisation between native bluebells and introduced Spanish bluebells in the UK.

● Dr Mark Hughes has been awarded £48,414 by the M.L. MacIntyre Begonia Trust to support a PhD project researching the Begonia of Sulawesi, a large Indonesian island whose flora is poorly studied. It is estimated that less than half of its Begonia species have been identified.

● Recent financial support from the Sibbald Trust has enabled Alex Wortley to identify and describe many new species of Aframomum, a large and important genus in the ginger family, collected throughout tropical Africa by Herbarium Curator Dr David Harris. The results of their work will be submitted for publication early next year.

● Thanks to two Patrons, Sarah Ward, and Willa Elphinstone of Drumkilbo Designs Ltd, the Caledonian Hall now boasts attractive silk damask curtains. Their installation was made possible by the significant in-kind support of Drumkilbo Designs Ltd and Zoffany Ltd, with assistance from Cope and Timmins Ltd, McKinney & Co., Sinclairs and Christopher Strutt.

● Garden Members now have their own polytunnel in the Nursery at Edinburgh, thanks to a generous in-kind donation by Patron Caroline Pearson and British Polythene Industries. The space will be used to propagate and nurture plants for the Members’ Plant Sale and Plant Auction, two of their most successful fundraising events.

● Renowned RHS gold medal-winning botanical artist Lizzie Sanders, a tutor at RBGE, has donated one of her stunning paintings to the Library’s botanical art collection. Her subject, Begonia samhaensis, was first discovered by RBGE botanists on the desert island of Samha in the Soqotra Archipelago, in 1999.

Inspirational tales for Patrons

“A memorable evening I will treasure. Thank you very, very much,” was just one of the

many appreciative comments received from Patrons after their annual Dinner in September, the biggest to date.

Robin Hanbury-Tenison OBE, the evening’s guest speaker, recounted tales from some of his inspirational expeditions, many on behalf of Survival International and The Royal Geographical Society. His campaigning and travel writing has done much to raise awareness of the tropical rainforests and the plight of indigenous people living in them.

The evening’s principal sponsor was NetJets Europe, a leader in private aviation, while Exsus Travel kindly donated a tailor-made holiday to Ecuador, valued

at £6,000, for auction. Thanks also go to Sarah Ward and Caroline Best, two Patrons whose energy and creativity have helped make the annual Dinners memorable ever since the Patrons Programme was launched in 2001.

In October, renowned Scottish-Italian restaurateur Victor Contini hosted an evening for Patrons with fungi specialist Professor Roy Watling at Centotre in George Street, Edinburgh. Fungi and their by-products play an essential part in just about every part of our daily lives, from pharmaceuticals and food additives to beverages and cuisine. For more information about the Patrons’ Programme, please contact Becky Govier on 0131 248 2866 or email b.govier@rbge.org.uk

Scotland’s First Minister, Jack McConnell, has pledged his support for The Gateway project

at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh after a visit to the Garden in the autumn.

Hosted by RBGE’s Regius Keeper, Stephen Blackmore, and Campaign Board Chairman, Sir George Mathewson, the First Minister was treated to a behind-the-scenes tour of the Botanics and a walk through the Chinese Hillside to find out more about the national and natural treasures to be opened up to the public through The Gateway.

During his visit, the First Minister learned how The Gateway will reach out

to new audiences in the community and inspire about the world of plants through living specimens, library archives, preserved plants or ‘weird and wonderful’ microscopy images of plant structures. People will also play a big part in the project, with RBGE and partner experts giving demonstrations to the public, similar to that seen by the First Minister in RBGE’s Microscopy Laboratory.

With work on The Gateway set to start next year, the First Minister’s support comes at a crucial time, highlighting the current need for more donations to ensure the success of this flagship project.

First Minister endorses Garden’s Gateway

Above: First Minister Jack McConnell, left, strolls through the Chinese Hillside with Garden Curator David Paterson.

If you would like to help us secure the Garden’s future by becoming a Member, leaving a legacy or making a donation, please contact Becky Govier at the Development Office on 0131 248 2866 or e-mail b.govier@rbge.org.uk

Evergreen rhododendrons offer a huge variety of size, leaf shape and texture. A personal favourite

is Rhododendron campylocarpum, first introduced by Joseph Hooker in 1849 from Sikkim, though its range extends through the Himalayas to western China. When introduced, it was regarded as tender − the accompanying illustration of 1857 is of a plant growing in a cold greenhouse.

RBGE has received several introductions of this plant, and our four Gardens with their individual microclimates play an important part in learning how to grow them successfully. Our forefathers understood this and at Glenbranter (see page 8) introductions of Rh. campylocarpum, grown from seed collected in the west of its range by R. E. Cooper, were sent for trial in 1923.

Later introductions to Benmore Botanic Garden, from Yunnan in China, have proven hardy and reliable flowerers. Joseph Rock collected them in the 1920s at elevations of 3000–4000m, where tall shrub vegetation dominates the northerly aspects. Here, Rh.

Greenfingers

campylocarpum is found growing with Rh. campanulatum among Betula utilis and Abies species. If you have the space, Rock’s species list above would form a pleasing planting in its own right.

It has produced a number of popular hybrids including ‘Dairymaid’ and ‘Moonlight’. All share its clear, pale-yellow flowers borne from April to June, often almost obscuring the leaves in large seven- or eight-flowered umbels. It has pleasing, bluish-green leaves. In time, it grows to two to three metres and displays greyish white, flaking bark. It enjoys light shade with a little shelter, and a free-draining, acid soil rich in organic matter.

Rhododendrons are difficult to propagate by cuttings. However, with bottom heat and a closed case they are worth trying in September and October. They are easy to produce from seed and may result in some interesting yellow- and peachy-flowered hybrids. Sow the seed in a humid environment as soon as it is shed; though it may germinate in as little as six weeks, the plants will take up to seven years to reach flowering size.

At the four National Botanic Gardens of Scotland you may see many hundreds of rhododendron species from around the world. Admire their structure and leaf textures on a winter walk-round and return in spring to witness their flowering spectacular.

Over 65,000 visitors flocked to the Ideal Home Show Scotland at Glasgow’s SECC between

13 and 22 October, and visitors to the RBGE stand could take part in a diverse range of activities, from storytelling and colouring competitions for the children to drop-in arts and craft sessions and the chance to make your own herbal tea bags for the adults.

“Although the activities were good fun, there was a serious side,” says Sally McNaught, RBGE Membership Manager, “The general theme of this year’s show was sustainability, and the chance for visitors to the stand to become involved in making something using recycled

or natural materials was a great way of raising awareness about it. People could also leave with something they had made, which is always satisfying.”

As well as the activities, visitors were able to pick up information about Membership and the Garden’s activities from the Daily Mail Group-sponsored stand and purchase a range of products from the Botanics Trading Company and Jutexpo, suppliers of this year’s graphics, shelves and fittings. For information about this event or any other Members’ activities, please contact the Membership Office on 0131 552 5339 or email members@rbge.org.uk

Sustainable fun at Home Show

Rhododendron campylocarpum from Botanical Magazine vol 83 year 1857, plate 4968.

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It’s not just plants that grow up in the Botanics.

For a free guide on how to make a will, please contact Lucy Clement on

0131 248 2984 or email l.clement@rbge.org.uk

If you would like future generations to enjoy the Garden, please consider leaving us a gift in your will.

At this time of year, evergreen shrubs add structure to the garden, but they needn’t be chosen simply for the interest they provide in winter. The most spectacular flowering evergreens are the rhododendrons, says Garden Supervisor Pete Brownless.

Royal Botanic Garden EdinburghOpen daily (except 25 December and 1 January)Inverleith Row, Edinburgh, EH3 5LRTel: 0131 552 7171 • Email: info@rbge.org.uk

National Botanic Gardens of Scotland comprise:

Dawyck Botanic GardenOpen daily, 1 February to 30 NovemberStobo, Peeblesshire, EH45 9JUTel: 01721 760254 • Email: dawyck@rbge.org.uk

Benmore Botanic Garden Open daily, 1 March to 31 OctoberDunoon, Argyll, PA23 8QUTel: 01369 706261 • Email: benmore@rbge.org.uk

Logan Botanic GardenOpen daily, 1 March to 31 OctoberPort Logan, Wigtownshire, DG9 9NDTel: 01776 860231 • Email: logan@rbge.org.uk

For further information about events at the Garden, Education Courses and Membership, see our website

www.rbge.org.ukFor an events programme, contact Catherine Mouat, tel: 0131 248 2991, email: c.mouat@rbge.org.uk

The Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh turns magically green thisChristmas when, each weekend from25 November to 17 December

our Green Santa hostsfestive activities for all ages.

NATIONAL BOTANIC GARDENS OF SCOTLAND

2007 Postcard Calendar

Availablein the

BotanicsShopsPrice £7.99

The Royal Botanic Garden Edinburghis a registered charity –

all profit is gifted to the Garden.

at the Botanics