Clik here to view.
Next gen elms
Seeing the next generation doing well gives us hope for the future, and this goes for plants as much as people. This is particularly true when the plants in question are threatened. So it was a...
View ArticleClik here to view.
One in a thousand
Caught in the process of unfurling its first pair of leaves, this newly germinated wych elm seedling looks delicate. But it is in the vanguard of a new project to reverse the decline of ten threatened...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Golden jewel
The marsh saxifrage (Saxifraga hirculus) is a golden jewel of our bogs and marshlands. Each small plant bears one or two flowers, bright golden yellow and often dotted with orange markings on the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Hedlundia in a spin
Taxonomists – those who classify and name species – are sometimes grumbled about by gardeners because familiar plant names are changed, apparently out of the blue and for no reason. A recent example...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Restoration in focus
Recovery of threatened plant populations requires attention to a lot of small details and sometimes this includes working with things that are literally small. Flowers can be small. But even larger...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Pressing conservation issue
It’s the season of mellow fruitfulness and the Scottish Plant Recovery project team has been busy squashing the bright orange/red berries of the Arran whitebeams (Hedlundia species) to extract the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Plants on the move
Plant blindness – the inability to see or notice the plants in one’s own environment. Elisabeth schussler & James wandersee, 1998 Surprisingly, for me at least, some people don’t notice plants....
View ArticleClik here to view.
Plants moving on
I imagine that releasing a red kite or a golden eagle as part of a species reintroduction programme is a pretty emotional moment. That animal, raised in captivity, is now free and must fend for itself...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Apple recovery bears fruit
The apple is a symbol of fertility in Norse and Germanic pagan tradition. So, there is some irony in the fact that work by the Scottish Plant Recovery project to restore the crab apple (Malus...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Resilient plant communities
Diversity is the basis of resilience. But we tend to focus on the number of species or habitats and not the diversity within a single species. This is a problem as species with low genetic diversity...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Rainforest elm
Awareness that Britain is a rainforest nation is finally growing. Environmental organisations are doing their best to get Britain’s rainforests the recognition they deserve. But one man, Guy...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Scottish Plant Recovery
This is an exciting time for threatened plant recovery as new opportunities are emerging through ambitious large-scale nature recovery projects Aline Finger, Scottish plant recovery project lead Early...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Planting healthy
…biosecurity has become central to conservation in recent years and the benefits of investing time and resource into producing biosecure plants will pay dividends… matt elliot, RBGE plant health &...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Seedlings of hope
On Thursday 25 January 2024, 43 people gathered at the Little Assynt Tree Nursery, near Lochinver, making a hopeful start to the year by planting elm trees. Elms are important in Assynt as it is one...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Restoring a fern wiped out by collectors and botanists
Oblong woodsia (Woodsia ilvensis), a small, rare mountain fern, was virtually wiped out in the Moffat Hills by commercial collectors responding to the Victorian craze for ferns – pteridomania – that...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Elm blossom
If you have ever appreciated elms blooming then you are more observant than most. I don’t mean the splashes of bright green we see in April before most deciduous trees come into leaf. That is the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Last Ent set to repopulate Glen Affric
Sometimes individual trees attain what might be called celebrity status. They become widely known for some particular quality or association. This often relates to historical figures and events that...
View ArticleClik here to view.
My RBGE Apprenticeship: Glasshouse Rotation – Patricia Berakova
A full view of the research and propagation glasshouses at Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh.(Photo: Sadie Barber) As part of my apprenticeship at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, I have been working...
View ArticleClik here to view.
A tale of two elms
A new chapter in the 800 year relationship between the people of the Highland village of Beauly and a remarkable wych elm began on Monday 29 April 2024 with the planting of two young elms. In January...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The elm hunters
Inchnadamph is on the shore of Loch Assynt, at the point where the burn known as the Traligill enters the loch. The hamlet consists of only a few houses and a small kirk surrounded by high hills and...
View Article