Issue 36 | spring 2009
Darwin’s botanical legacy
The quest continues at the Garden
The Biodiversity Garden
A unique garden for the John Hope Gateway
Rebuilding the Benmore Fernery
A new lease of life for a Victorian treasure
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NICS Spring 2009
Contents
Foreword
Cover: This portrait forms part
of the Darwin exhibition, which runs at London’s Natural History
Museum until 19 April 2009.
© Natural History Museum.
“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet.”
In this issue ...
4 Looking closely at life
Charles Darwin and the work of RBGE examined
8 Saving Scotland’s wildlife
How RBGE science is helping
threatened wild plants
10Recreating the Benmore Fernery
Restoration of the listed building
nears completion
11 A day in the life ...
Of RBGE’s Head Ranger Giles Kempsell
1 2 Building the Gateway's garden
Preparing and planting a unique creation
1 3 Spring events and exhibitions
The ‘buzz’ of biodiversity Scottish Biodiversity Week
Raffles’ Ark Redrawn: natural history drawings from the collection of Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles
1 4 Saving the strawberry tree
Developers and Gateway sponsors rescue a rare tree
Coming home to the Garden
RBGE takes part in The Gathering
15 Leaving a legacy
A letter from a legacy pledger
Greenfingers
Grow your own fly catcher: Cape sundews
Juliet’s words to Romeo strike a chord
with most of us. For many purposes,
what a thing is matters more than what
it is called. But there is another side to
names: they give us clarity and precision
that are indispensable in botany.
Fortunately plants have wonderful
names to conjure with, whether it is
their familiar common name or their
precise botanical designation. Part of
the pleasure we take in plants comes
from knowing their names. In this issue
you will encounter the strawberry tree,
wintergreen and the woolly willow
as well as Rafflesia, Melampyrum,
Pinguicula and Sibbaldia. There is also
a mention of one particular species
of Rhododendron, the highly invasive
Rhododendron ponticum, that earns its benign and beautiful relatives a bad press.
Gardens have names too, and
sometimes they can be complex and
confusing. We have been working to
simplify the ways in which we refer
to our four Gardens, individually and
collectively. They are, of course, all part of one great institution, the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh,
founded in 1670. Discussions with
various focus groups have shown that
it has not always been clear that
Benmore, Dawyck and Logan are part of
the same family and that using the name
'National Botanic Gardens of Scotland'
adds to the confusion. The four Gardens
that make up the Royal Botanic Garden
Edinburgh are indeed the National
Botanic Gardens and will continue to
be so, but using this as our name can
cause misunderstanding so will be
The Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh is a Charity
registered in Scotland (number SC007983) and is
supported by the Scottish Government Rural and
Environmental Research and Analysis Directorate.
Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh
20A Inverleith Row, Edinburgh EH3 5LR
Tel: 0131 552 7171
Fax: 0131 248 2901
Web: www.rbge.org.uk
Opinions expressed within The Botanics are those of the
contributors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh.
All information correct at time of going to press.
Enquiries regarding circulation of The Botanics should be addressed to Hamish Adamson.
Above: Regius Keeper Professor Stephen Blackmore
in the Memorial Pavilion of the Queen Mother's
Memorial Garden at Edinburgh.
discontinued. We will now refer to our
Regional Gardens in the form: the Royal
Botanic Garden Edinburgh at Benmore,
Dawyck or Logan.
We have also taken the opportunity
to refresh our logo. The typefaces and
layout will be subtly different but the
familiar Sibbaldia motif remains as the
centrepiece. This diminutive alpine
plant was named by the great Swedish
botanist Carl Linnaeus in honour of
Robert Sibbald, one of the co-founders
of our institution. It grows high in the
Scottish mountains where snow beds
lie and flowered particularly well in
last year’s wet summer. Not that its
greenish yellow flowers are conspicuous
at the best of times. The easiest way to see Sibbaldia will continue to be on
our literature and signs, especially at the John Hope Gateway, which opens in the summer.
Professor Stephen Blackmore
Regius Keeper
Editor Hamish Adamson
Email: [email protected]
Contributing Editor Anna Levin
Email: [email protected]
Production Editor Catherine Mouat
Email: [email protected]
Designer Caroline Muir
Email: [email protected]
Printed by CCB, Glasgow
T H E B O TA N
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News
Illustration: Ryoko Tamura
New treasures
for the Library
Top honours for
RBGE botanists
Two major acquisitions were recently
made by the RBGE Library. The first is
a set of 13 letters by alpine-gardener
and plant collector Reginald Farrer
(1880-1920). The letters were
written from Burma between 1919
and 1920, and shed revealing light on
his colourful personal life. Thanks to an
earlier donation by the Farrer family, the
Library already holds important related
material, including botanical paintings
made on the same expedition. James and Alison Cann have
generously donated a large folio of
drawings and descriptions, entitled
‘The Grasses of Assam’, dating from
1869. The volume is the work of
James’s ancestor James Murray Foster,
a surgeon with the Assam Company, and is a copy of a work by Samuel
Edward Peal (1834-97), who
undertook important research in the
area – not only on its grasses, but also
on diseases of the tea plant, astronomy
and philology. All of Peal’s papers were
destroyed in a fire, making the Foster
‘copy’ uniquely important.
Professor Stephen Blackmore, RBGE’s
Regius Keeper, and the Garden’s Director of Horticulture Dr David Rae
enjoyed a double honour when they
were both presented with the Scottish
Horticultural Medal at a recent Royal
Caledonian Horticultural Society (RCHS)
awards ceremony.
RCHS Chairman George Anderson
said it was the first time in the
Society’s 200 year history that the
Scottish Horticultural Medal had been
awarded to two people from the same
organisation in the same year. “As a
team they have done a large amount for
horticulture in Scotland and botanical
gardens nationally and internationally,”
he said. “They are both wonderful
ambassadors for RBGE.’’
The RCHS citation noted that
Stephen Blackmore had also developed a
particular skill in educating and enthusing
the general public about the global
issues affecting plants and people and
that David Rae has made an outstanding
contribution to horticulture during a
career spanning 30 years at RBGE.
Follow Darwin
at the Science
Festival
Edinburgh International Science Festival
returns to the Garden from Wednesday
8 to Tuesday 14 April. In celebration
of the 200th anniversary of Charles
Darwin’s birth, the theme for the
Science Festival at the Garden will be
change and adaptation (see page 7).
There will be a busy programme of
family activities and a series of evening
lectures. If you want to get ‘hands-on’
you can find out what it is like to go on
a plant collecting expedition, dig up a
dinosaur, follow the Darwin Journey
Activity Trail and take part in the many
other drop-in activities on offer. Talks
and science demonstrations will be on
offer at 12 noon and 3 pm each day and
there will also be a special storytelling
show about the Hungry Stone Giant.
During the Science Festival all
children are invited to visit the
Glasshouses for free. Full details of the
programme and a booking facility are
available at the Science Festival website
www.sciencefestival.co.uk
Discovering a lost world at the Garden
RBGE teamed up with the Scottish
Poetry Library in February for the third ‘One Book-One Edinburgh’ reading
campaign, which distributes free
copies of a chosen book to schools,
libraries, coffee shops and other public
outlets across the city. RBGE provided
an ideal venue for an event on the
exploration theme of this year’s title:
Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Lost World.
Over 200 visitors followed a map through
Edinburgh’s Glasshouses to ‘discover’ plant
labels containing poems and prose chosen
by Ryan Van Winkle, Reader in Residence
at Edinburgh City Libraries and the Scottish
Poetry Library. The extracts could also
be found in the city centre in Edinburgh’s
Poetry Garden, St Andrew Square.
Illustration:
© iStockphoto.com
The project was developed in
collaboration with Edinburgh UNESCO
City of Literature, City of Edinburgh
Council and Essential Edinburgh.
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NICS Spring 2009
Looking
closely at life
Main: Darwin was fascinated by plants’
relationships with, and adaptations to, other beings. Butterfly on Echinacea species
courtesy of Alex Wilson.
The spotlight will be on Charles
Darwin throughout this year – 200 years since his birth and
150 years since the publication
of his seminal work The Origin
of Species. Anna Levin finds
the spirit of Darwin alive and
well at RBGE, where the quest
to unravel the mysteries of the
natural world continues.
Tiny strands of moss from the
Galapagos Islands, scruffy blades
of tufty grass from the Falklands,
cudweed from northern Patagonia, still
with a silver-gold sheen on its flower
heads. These are among a special
collection of dried plant specimens
in the Garden’s Herbarium, all neatly
labelled in smooth, copperplate writing:
“Darwin for Henslow”. There are 63
specimens in total, some sheets busy
with sprawling pressed flowers, others
just tiny fragments on the edge of the
paper. Each one is a physical link to an
incredible story that changed the lives
of all involved and changed human
thinking ever after: the voyage of the
Beagle, which circumnavigated the
world between 1831 and 1836.
John Stevens Henslow
was Professor of Botany at
Cambridge University
T H E B O T A NI C S S p r i n g 2 0 0 9 | 5
Left: RBGE’s Archives include correspondence from
Darwin to the Garden’s then Regius Keeper John
Hutton Balfour. In this letter of 1866 he mentions
contact with John Scott, horticulturist at RBGE.
Below: Charles Darwin in a photograph taken by Julia Margaret Cameron. © Natural History
Museum. This portrait will be exhibited in the Natural
History Museum's April 2009 Darwin exhibition.
when the young Charles Darwin enrolled
there to study Divinity, following an
unsuccessful attempt to study Medicine
in Edinburgh. Though Botany was not
part of his curriculum, Darwin found
Henslow an inspirational teacher and
attended every lecture during his three
years in Cambridge. It was Henslow who
recommended Darwin when Captain
Fitzroy was looking for a naturalist and
gentleman
companion to
accompany
him aboard
the Beagle,
describing
his student
as “not a finished naturalist” but “amply
qualified for collecting, observing and
noting anything new to be noted in
natural history”.
And so, at just 22 years old, Charles
Darwin set sail from England in 1831,
bound for an adventure which would
take him from high mountains to coral
atolls, collecting all manner of natural
history specimens along the way. The
journey enabled him to observe the
dazzling diversity of the natural world,
thus feeding his relentlessly enquiring
mind with enough insights to begin to
develop his evolutionary theories.
Think Darwin and you may think of
man and monkeys, religious controversy,
finches or giant tortoises in the
Galapagos Islands, or maybe barnacles
or fossils. Plants are not often part of
the picture, yet Darwin was fascinated
by plants from his early childhood to
old age and wrote six books and more
than 70 articles on botanical subjects,
taking great strides forward in the
understanding of plant biology.
Darwin played down his own botany,
describing himself as a “botanical
ignoramus”, perhaps humbled by his
friendships with the greatest botanists
of the time, including his mentor
Henslow, Joseph Dalton Hooker who
became head of Kew,
and Asa Gray, the
leading botanist in
America. Yet Darwin
grew up in a family
steeped in botany and
plantsmanship and his
writing from throughout his life shines
with a sheer delight in the beauty and
complexity of plantlife.
Aboard the Beagle, Darwin sailed to
the Cape Verde Islands and was overwhelmed by his first sight of lush tropical
vegetation. When they reached the
rainforest of Brazil he was “in raptures”.
“The mind is a chaos of delight,”
he wrote. “Amongst the multitude it
is hard to say what set of objects is
most striking: the general luxuriance
of the vegetation bears the victory,
the elegance of the grasses, the novelty
of the parasitical plants, the beauty
of the flowers, the glossy green of
the foliage…”
Throughout the Beagle’s
voyage he collected plants
extensively, sending seeds
and herbarium specimens
back to England.
The journey enabled
him to observe the
dazzling diversity of
the natural world.
Many new plants that he discovered
were later named after him, including
Senecio darwinii in the daisy family, the slipper flower Calceolaria darwinii
and Berberis darwinii from an island off
the coast of Chile. Some specimens,
including a number in RBGE’s Herbarium,
were common plants that he recognised
from gardens and hedgerows back home. “It might be curious to observe whether
European weeds have undergone any
change by their residence in this country,”
he wrote to Henslow, hinting already at
his evolutionary thinking.
Once back home in England, Darwin
continued to investigate the world of
plants in incredible detail, exploring
their connections with each other and
the rest of the natural world. He had a
particular fascination for orchids (“what
wonderful structures!”), carnivorous
plants (“a wonderful plant, or a rather
most sagacious animal”), climbing plants
(“I believe the tendrils can see”), as well as pollination and fertilisation.
6 | T H E B O T A NI C S S p r i n g 2 0 0 9
Photos, this page: “It has always pleased me to exalt plants
in the scale of organised beings,” wrote Darwin, who was
particularly fascinated by carnivorous plants (main, courtesy of Alex Wilson) and orchids (inset).
Opposite, top: RBGE is still ‘exploring and explaining’ the natural
world. Here, Regius Keeper Stephen Blackmore examines a desert rose (Adenium obesum subsp. sokotranum) on the remote archipelago of Soqotra.
Bottom, left and right: RBGE scientists examine life closely, just as Darwin did, but with the additional tools of molecular
research and DNA sequencing.
With his experiments on hybridisation,
Darwin corresponded at length with John Scott, a horticulturist at RBGE, who lived on site in a bothy at the Garden.
Scott told Darwin that he chose the
gardening life as the best way of following
science and was apprenticed as a gardener
at the age of 14. With Darwin as his
mentor, Scott undertook experiments on
cross- and self-fertilisation and his work is quoted in Darwin’s publications.
Among the Library’s Archives is
correspondence from Darwin to RBGE’s
then Regius Keeper, John Hutton Balfour.
Balfour knew Darwin from meetings of
the Plinian Society during his student
days in Edinburgh, where natural history
enthusiasts would discuss theories,
undertake experiments and explore local
sites such as Inchkeith Island and the Isle of May. Balfour remained on friendly
terms with Darwin, despite finding his
evolutionary theories “both erroneous and
dangerous” and in conflict with his faith.
“Darwin was certainly one of the
greatest naturalists,” Balfour wrote after
Darwin’s death in 1882, “and he was
endeared to all who had the honour of his
acquaintance, which included many who
were not prepared to accept the doctrine
which was associated with his name”.
At RBGE today, Darwin’s legacy lives
on in the Garden’s mission of ‘exploring
and explaining the world of plants for a
better future’.
“There is a tendency to believe
that the basic biological exploration
of the planet must have been finished
in Darwin’s day,” says Regius Keeper
Professor Stephen Blackmore. “But there
is still so much to discover – we are
still going out on field trips and coming
back with new species. And we’re still
asking the same questions: how has the
diversity of life come about?”
The core of the Garden’s work is
taxonomy – the classification of organisms –
and Professor Blackmore explains that
the fieldwork process hasn’t changed
much since Darwin made his taxonomic
study of barnacles: “You go out there,
collect what there is, assemble it and make an understanding of it”. What has changed is our ability to
interpret that information.
T H E B O T A NI C S S p r i n g 2 0 0 9 | 7
“Now we have a whole different tool
box with molecular biology and the ability
to compare DNA sequences – Darwin
would have loved that! One of the
dimensions that Darwin started thinking
about in the Galapagos was biogeography –
understanding the pattern of diversity of species in terms of their distribution.
The subject is really alive today and has
been revolutionised by molecular biology.”
“The concept
of inheritance
was crucial
to Darwin’s
thinking but
he didn’t know
what that
mechanism
of inheritance
was,” explains
RBGE’s Head of
Tropical Diversity Toby Pennington. “It was after Darwin that Mendel laid the
foundations for the science of genetics,
and we didn’t know about DNA until
1953 – about a century after The Origin
of Species was published.”
“RBGE is a world leader in molecular
phylogenetics (the study of evolutionary
relationships through molecular
sequencing data),” Toby continues. “Our work shows that Darwin was right
in many cases, such as the long-distance
dispersal of plants across water. For
example, our molecular research on
tropical gingers has revealed that species
of the genus Renealmia found in Africa
and the New World must have crossed
the Atlantic Ocean.”
As well as the intellectual puzzle
and human thirst for knowledge,
understanding the ‘how and why’
of evolution has important practical
implications for conservation, explains
Toby: “If Historic Scotland want to
prioritise which building to conserve,
it needs to consult history books to
understand the significance. We inject
that thinking into the natural world. For
example, we may have to choose between
directing conservation resources to an
area of tropical rain forest or tropical dry
forest. The tropical rain forest may have
far more species
so you would think
that would be the
priority. But our
molecular work
shows that many
rain forest species
have evolved
recently, whereas
the lesser number
of species in the
dry forest are far more ancient lineages,
some going back ten million years. We are
still asking specific evolutionary questions,
so in that sense it’s a continuation of
Darwin’s work.”
Perhaps Darwin’s botanical work
is less well known because plants
themselves are so often overlooked.
“Plants are often seen as just the
background of life; they are so familiar;
that they are not considered as exciting
as animals, or as having behaviour,”
says Professor Blackmore. “But they
still have to solve the same problems –
how to reproduce, move about, get to
the correct habitat – they just do so in
different ways. When you look at the
subjects that Darwin investigated you
realise that there is so much going on in
the plant world and it is so finely tuned.”
Darwin showed that plants have
behaviour, even sense organs, some kind
Darwin showed
that plants have
behaviour, even sense
organs, some kind
of nerve impulses,
power of movement.
of nerve impulses, power of movement.
He investigated plants as fellow beings
to animals and people, and showed how
all were interconnected through the
‘great tree of life’. With an eye on the
bigger picture, he came to understand
the smallest details.
“Darwin was interested in the full
diversity of life,” says Professor Blackmore.
“He was one of the people who looked
closely at the world; he was looking at
life in detail and, at a fundamental level,
that is exactly what we are doing.”
The bicentenary of
Charles Darwin’s birth
is celebrated this year
with a series of events
across the UK. More
information can be found at www.darwin200.org
Look out for Darwin-themed events at RBGE in our current
What’s On guide or by visiting
www.rbge.org.uk/whats-on/darwin-200
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Saving
Scotland’s
wildlife
RBGE’s Director of Science Mary Gibby describes how
RBGE’s expertise contributes to conservation action plans.
Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH)
launched its Species Action Framework
in 2007 to provide a strategic approach to managing species in
Scotland. The ultimate aim is to have
thriving and, where possible, selfsustaining and self-regulating
populations of
Above: Melampyrum sylvaticum, the small cow
wheat. A recovery project was set up in 2005 to restore and monitor its declining populations in Scotland.
Main: Corrie Sharroch in Angus provides some of the rarest and most endangered sub-arctic
willow scrub habitat in the UK.
native species, distributed throughout
their natural range.
From the diverse range of plant,
animal and fungal species in Scotland, 32
were selected for the Action Framework,
following wide consultation. The species
were selected to represent examples
from the wide range of diversity in
Scotland, and include vulnerable native
mammals, birds, fish, amphibians,
butterflies, a bumblebee, hoverfly and
burnet moth, as well as four flowering
plants, a stonewort and a fungus.
Not all the species included are
native, and not all are targets for
conservation action. Six species on the list are non-native invasive species
that present a threat to the native fauna
and flora; for example, management of
Rhododendron ponticum is critical to
the health of native woodland where
it is eliminating habitat for mosses,
liverworts and lichens.
Research work at RBGE is
contributing to conservation of three
of the threatened plant species on the
list: the woolly willow, Salix lanata;
intermediate wintergreen, Pyrola
media; and the small cow wheat, Melampyrum sylvaticum.
T H E B O T A NI C S S p r i n g 2 0 0 9 | 9
Teaming up with the woolly willow
Sub-arctic willow scrub, one of the
rarest and most endangered habitats
in the UK, has been the subject of a
Genetics on the mark
for a wintergreen
The intermediate, wintergreen Pyrola
media (below), is one of a suite of
evergreen herbs that is associated with
the native pinewoods and sub-montane
heaths of Scotland. Currently its main
stronghold is in the Cairngorms with
additional populations to the west as
well as in northern Skye. However,
over the past 40 years there has been
a significant decline in its population in
the UK. This is thought to be largely
due to changes in habitat management.
The Species Action Framework aims
detailed investigation, with RBGE’s Head
of Genetics and Conservation Pete
Hollingsworth leading a multi-disciplinary
team of researchers from the Macaulay
Institute, Scottish Crop Research Institute
and the universities of Edinburgh and
Aberdeen (see the Botanics Issue 20).
The research provided key information
to develop the most appropriate
management practice for this habitat
and initiate a programme of species
recovery. In 2007, in collaboration with
Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH), RBGE’s
Conservation Officer Heather McHaffie
and colleagues from RBGE’s horticulture
team began collecting seeds and
cuttings for propagation to extend some
populations of these montane willows
from their refuges on crags onto the
slopes below. The intention is to plant
other species around the Salix lanata
(left) to create a plant community.
to reverse this trend by maintaining
existing populations and re-establishing
populations into sites where it was
formerly known to occur.
To achieve this it is essential to have
accurate information on the distribution
and biology of this species. Accurate
distributions, have in the past, been
hampered by the inability of surveyors
to identify Pyrola media correctly.
When it is not in flower it can be very
difficult to distinguish Pyrola media from
other wintergreens which grow in similar
habitats. RBGE Molecular Ecologist Jane Squirrell has developed a genetic
test that can distinguish all three British
Pyrola species. Surveyors can now send
leaf material from plants that are not in
flower to RBGE for analysis.
Pyrola media also forms distinct
clumps consisting of a number of
rosettes. These patches can range in
size from one or two to many hundreds
of rosettes. As Pyrola media is known
to spread by creeping rhizomes, it is
possible that rosettes within a single
patch could all represent one individual.
RBGE is currently using genetic markers
to assess the extent of clonality of
these patches and this information can
then be used to develop more effective
management plans for this species.
Small cow wheat in recovery
The small cow wheat, Melampyrum
sylvaticum, (above being studied in the
field and below), is a hemiparasitic annual
plant, found in Scottish native pinewoods
and sub-montane heaths. There has
been a rapid decline in its UK distribution,
from some 200 populations to only 18, and these remaining populations
are all located in Scotland. A recovery
project was set up in 2005, creating five new populations in Perthshire, a previous stronghold of the species,
and these continue to be monitored.
The project was planned and developed
from knowledge gained through genetic
studies by RBGE MSc student Catherine
Sharp and ecological studies by Dr Sarah
Dalrymple of Aberdeen University.
Current research at RBGE by PhD
student Rhiannon Crichton is using
conservation genetics to ask questions:
How far are pollen and seed dispersed?
Do the small populations suffer from a
decline in fitness through inbreeding?
Would mixing of seeds from different
source populations be beneficial?
Rhiannon hopes that her research will
provide answers to these questions that
will be of benefit for the management
of Melampyrum sylvaticum.
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Recreating the
Benmore
Fernery
After more than a century of
decline and decay, the Fernery at
Benmore is rising like a phoenix
from the ashes, as RBGE’s Director
of Science Mary Gibby reports.
The Fernery building had its glory
period in the 1870s and 1880s, having been constructed by the sugar
baron James Duncan to display a range
of exotic ferns in the latest fashion. It featured underground heating pipes
fed from a coal-fired boiler, and a
stepped floor to provide a range of temperatures – following the hillside
against which it was constructed.
However, when the Benmore estate
changed ownership in 1889, the new
owner, Henry J. Younger, had different
horticultural priorities and so attention
to the Fernery declined.
Under RBGE’s stewardship of
Benmore, the emphasis has been
to maintain the structure as far as
possible, but this has long been fenced
Clockwise from top: A sketch of the ruined
Fernery by Peter Daniel, landscape architect; the contractors, WH Kirkwood Ltd, put the new roof spars into place; glazing work begins on the newly completed Fernery roof.
off from public access due to the
collapse of the roof and further damage
by trees and wild weather. Last year’s
fundraising campaign, however, was
successful in raising enough funds to
completely restore the Fernery and
open it to the public.
So it was with great delight that
Benmore’s Curator, Peter Baxter,
welcomed the construction team to
Benmore in May 2008 to begin the
work on restoration. The first challenge
was to secure the site and bring in
facilities, including a temporary building
and a crane to raise equipment to the
Fernery on the side of the hill. Regular
meetings between Mike Thornley of
MAST Architects, the contractors, the
Curator and Ian Lawrie, RBGE's Head of
Facilities Management, have ensured
that the challenges of restoration work
on a unique building in a remote site
have been overcome.
Meanwhile, the horticulture staff at
Benmore and Edinburgh are busy with
plans for replanting, both inside the
Fernery and in the landscape around the
structure. The hillside leading up to the
Fernery will be rich in ferns that have
been cultivated by Senior Horticulturist
Andy Ensoll at Edinburgh from spores of
wild origin. These plants are currently
held at Benmore in the nursery area to
acclimatise. Replanting of the Fernery
will wait until April, when the more tender
species are transferred from Edinburgh.
By midsummer the outdoor ferns will be
unfurling their fronds, and the Fernery
itself should be looking magnificent and
ready to welcome its first visitors.
The restoration work has received
significant financial support from the Heritage Lottery Fund, the
Younger Benmore Trust, the 2008
RBGE Members' Appeal and many
personal donations.
T H E B O T A NI C S S p r i n g 2 0 0 9 | 1 1
A day
in the life…
RBGE's team of Rangers ensure a warm welcome to the Garden, as Head Ranger Giles Kempsell tells Fay Young.
It’s just after nine o’ clock on a cold
winter morning. Evergreens droop, bare branches drip and squirrels go back to bed but Giles Kempsell stands
by the silvery flowers of the East Gate
with a welcoming smile.
Although the gates don’t open until 10 am RBGE’s Head Ranger has
been at work since before 8 am. Winter brings the benefit of extra time for one of the Garden’s fastest
changing jobs. Before the public
arrive, three days a week ‘Dark
Morning Training’ brings new gems
of information from horticulture,
education and science for Garden
Rangers to pass on to visitors.
That can mean a briefing on Sudden
Oak Death or trekking through the
rainforest to shoot monkeys in trees –
oh all right then, popping balloons with
blowpipes in the Glasshouses: as Giles
puts it, “pretending to be children” on a
rainforest walk is the best way to find
out what family activities are like.
The ‘public face’ of the Garden has
changed dramatically in the last few
years. “The job has a complicated
history,” says Giles, as we settle into
his warm office overlooking the East
Gate. Until ten years ago the Garden
was patrolled by the Royal Park
Constabulary, “complete with handcuffs,
truncheons and full powers of arrest”.
By the time Giles was appointed as
the Garden’s first Head Ranger in May
2007, the service had evolved through
Stewards to Rangers. With a background
in countryside park management in
Cambridgeshire and Warwickshire, Giles
now heads a team of 20 (equivalent to
13 full-time staff) with a wide range of
skills and experience including first aid
certificates and “the ability to talk the
hind legs off a donkey”.
Keeping people (and plants) safe
and secure is still a key part of the
job. Garden Rangers in uniform green
sweatshirts still guard against joggers,
dogs and cyclists (not to mention
Above: Head Ranger, Giles Kempsell, at the desk of the
Temperate Palm House and below with the Edinburgh
Ranger staff in the Arid Lands of the Glasshouses.
“grannies with secateurs”). But at the
Gates, Glasshouses and Exhibition Hall,
the emphasis now is on welcoming
people to a place of discovery.
“Where are the flowers?” is the first
question people often ask when they
come to the Garden. Giles and his team
make sure they know where to find
seasonal highlights but they also try to
get across the serious purpose of RBGE.
Entrance gates advertise free weekly
activities organised by Clare Fiennes,
Giles’ deputy in charge of events. Last year more than 2,000 people took
part in workshops and walks offering
hands-on activities like bulb-planting
and card-making as well as discussions
about climate change.
“Basically we’re aiming at families,”
says Giles. “We complement the work
of specialists in the Garden. Our job is
not about horticulture or science; it’s
about people. We are always delighted
when parents thank us for making the
visit fun for the whole family.”
The 363-day-a-year job of a Ranger
is still evolving. After a lunch break,
providing back-up for the rest of the
team, Giles retreats to an afternoon of
admin and future planning. The opening
of the John Hope Gateway later this
year adds many new opportunities to
meet, greet and engage with the public.
By then winter’s dark mornings will be
long gone and Garden Rangers will be
working summertime shifts, starting at
9 am and ending when the unchanged
call of ‘Closing Time’ echoes through the Garden before gates close at 7 pm.
1 2 | T H E B O T A NI
NICS Spring 2009
Building the
Gateway’s garden
RBGE’s horticulture team are busy preparing the John Hope Gateway's special garden, as Anna Levin reports.
At the Garden’s former West Gate, all eyes are on the John Hope Gateway
building. Cranes swing the huge roof
beams into place, the biomass boiler
is installed and a curved wall is crafted
from slabs of Caithness stone.
But the John Hope Gateway is more
than the building, and the events and
exhibitions that will be held inside it.
There will also be a new garden, unlike
any you have seen before. This is the
Biodiversity Garden, designed to weave
layers of story, colour, structure and
meaning to create a lens through which visitors can view the wider
Garden with fresh eyes.
Led by Indoor Curator, David Mitchell,
RBGE staff have been working in close
collaboration with Gross Max Landscape
Architects, combining artistic and
horticultural skills and expertise.
Before the current planting programme
could begin, many years of detailed
planning took place. This ranged from
philosophical discussion of what stories
would be told, to practical considerations
of the cultivation conditions required for more than 1,000 plants.
Deciding what a biodiversity garden
is, or what it should or could be, was a central question for the team:
“A biodiversity garden is a landscape
specifically created to celebrate and
accommodate nature in the broadest
sense, encouraging all forms of life
whilst creating a sense of wonder all
year round,” answers David.
“I think it will surprise people,” says RBGE Garden Supervisor Pete Brownless. “Normally we plant in a more naturalistic style, but here we are planting to a precise matrix – it’s like working to a giant crochet
pattern! It is very artistic with pools of textures and colours. It’s going to look absolutely fantastic.”
“It will be ever-changing and look very different at different times of year,”
Pete continues. “Brilliantly flowery and
frothy in summer, jaggy and spiky in the
autumn. In late winter the structural
elements will be prominent – bands of
shrubs and lines of yew and dogwood.”
The design involves bringing
more than 300 new plants into the
Garden, and moving 100 more which
Main: Work begins on creating the Biodiversity Garden's
paths at the West Gate of the Edinburgh Garden.
Inset: Plants arrive at the RBGE Nursery of the
Edinburgh Garden in preparation for the Biodiversity
Garden.
have been propagated from existing
plantings. Realising this subtle and
complex design in a tight timescale will
mean hard work ahead for the Garden’s
horticulture team. But Pete is already
looking beyond the hard graft to the
multi-sensory experience the new
garden will offer.
“I’m looking forward to a summer’s
evening, sitting on the balcony,” he
says. “Everything will be in full flower,
the matrix of colour showing subtle
changes from apricot to peach and pink,
the swish of the breeze in the prairie
grass, gentle fragrances drifting up and
dragonflies flitting over the pond ...”
The Gateway is about showing how
plants are fundamental to absolutely
everything else.”
T H E B O T A NI C S S p r i n g 2 0 0 9 | 1 3
The ‘buzz’ of biodiversity
Scottish Biodiversity Week will be
celebrated at the Garden from 16 to 24
May. The programme of eight events
during the week highlights a range of
native plants and animals, including
endangered plants growing in Edinburgh,
rare mountain willows, and the honey bee.
International Biodiversity Day on
Friday 22 May focuses this year on
invasive alien species. For the duration
of Biodiversity Week the Garden will
be running a quiz to allow people to
test their knowledge of what is native
and what is exotic. But beware: some
very familiar plants are not native!
Exotics have tended to get a bad press
and some justifiably so. For example,
Japanese knotweed spreads rapidly and
can swamp native plants with its dense
canopy. However, not all introduced
plants are detrimental and some have
enhanced our flora and benefit wildlife.
The Oxford ragwort was introduced to
Oxford Botanic Garden from the volcanic
ash on the slopes of Mount Etna on Sicily.
It made itself at home on the ballast of
railway tracks and spread around Britain
as the Victorians built the railways. As
well as providing a good supply of nectar
and pollen to various insects, this plant
has crossed with the native groundsel to
produce a new species unique to Britain.
For more information about the events on offer during Scottish Biodiversity Week, consult RBGE’s What’s On guide,
visit www.rbge.org.uk/whats-on/home
Below: Biodiversity in action. The common white-tailed bumblebee, Bombus lucorum, on Eryngium alpinum. Photo by Alex Wilson.
Illustration: Green magpie – Cissa chinensis
(Boddaert), drawing by J. Briois, 1824.
© British Library.
Raffles’ Ark Redrawn:
Natural history drawings from the
collection of Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles
A colourful exhibition of natural history
drawings – plants, birds and mammals –
made for Sir Stamford Raffles, largely in
Sumatra, will be on show in Inverleith
House from 9 May to 5 July 2009.
These are from the Raffles Family
Collection that has recently been
purchased by the British Library. In fact it represents something of a
homecoming, as from 1939 to 1969
the drawings were kept in Inshriach
House near Aviemore, the property of
the Drake family, including Jack Drake
the alpine nurseryman who was Raffles’
great great great nephew.
The story of the drawings is a
dramatic one. In 1824 Raffles set sail
from Sumatra with huge collections
including Malay manuscripts, animals
specially tamed for the voyage, and
around 2,500 natural history drawings
commissioned mainly from Chinese
artists. Just offshore the boat caught
fire when a careless sailor used a
naked candle to tap some brandy from a cask. The passengers were all
saved, but the collections entirely lost. In the ten weeks until the next boat left, Above: Nutmeg – Myristica fragrans Houttuyn,
drawing, probably by A Kow, c. 1824. © British Library.
the artists were able to make about 80 drawings to replace the lost ones, of which a selection will be shown.
The birds, including exotic pheasants
and kingfishers, are spectacular and on
some the artist has used silver leaf to
convey the iridescence of feathers. The plants include a 2/3 life-size
engraving of the most famous of Raffles’
plants, the parasitic Rafflesia arnoldii,
with the largest flower in the world –
jointly discovered by Joseph Arnold who was a medical student at RBGE.
1 4 | T H E B O T A NI C S S p r i n g 2 0 0 9
Saving the
strawberry tree
Trinity Gardens, a property developer and
sponsor of the new John Hope Gateway,
recently teamed up with RBGE on a unique
project to protect a rare 150-yearold tree. The remarkable evergreen
strawberry tree, Arbutus menziesii, was
found on the site of the nearby Trinity
Gardens development and, with advice
from RBGE experts, was transplanted 50 metres from its original location.
The strawberry tree, first collected by
Scottish plant hunter Archibald Menzies
in 1792, stood over 14 metres tall
and, with the accompanying root mass,
weighed in excess of 24 tonnes. The relocation was carried out in
one day and followed many months
of detailed planning with a team of
Below: The evergreen strawberry
tree, Arbutus menziesii, being
transplanted from the Trinity
Gardens development site.
Photo courtesy of Stripe
Communications.
specialist advisers. The method used
to move the tree combined old and
new techniques, some of which were
standard practice in the 18th century.
RBGE Garden Supervisor Pete
Brownless, who provided guidance on
the move, said: “It is really positive to
see a property developer take such an
active interest in the trees onsite and
the lengths to which they have gone
to protect this rare tree. The tree has
transplanted well and although it has
taken a while to wake up after the
transplantation, it is wonderful to see
the tree finally bursting into life.”
To find out more about Trinity Gardens,
please visit www.trinity-gardens.com or call 0845 22 00 400.
Above: George Forrest, one of the great Scottish plant hunters, on expedition in China with his chief collector, Lao Chao.
Coming home
to the Garden
2009 sees the
250th anniversary
of the birth of
Scotland’s national poet,
Robert Burns. This iconic
figure is the inspiration behind a yearlong programme of events taking place
throughout Scotland, in which Scotland’s
culture, heritage and wide-ranging
contributions to the world are celebrated
as part of Homecoming Scotland 2009.
One of the year’s highlights takes place
in Edinburgh on the weekend of 25/26
July. The Gathering 2009 includes a Clan
Parade along the Royal Mile, an Historic
Pageant at Edinburgh Castle and two
days of Highland Games in Holyrood Park
and is expected to attract thousands of
visitors to Scotland’s capital city.
Following a very positive response
to a questionnaire on The Gathering
website, RBGE will be taking part by
offering a bespoke tour of the Edinburgh
Garden, focusing on the great Scottish
plant hunters. This is provisionally
scheduled for 23, 24 and 27 July, on
days just before and after The Gathering
weekend of events. Final details
have yet to be confirmed but further
information will be available on our
website www.rbge.org.uk/buyonline
For more information on
Homecoming Scotland 2009 or The Gathering 2009, please visit
www.homecomingscotland.com or www.thegathering2009.com
T H E B O TA N
NII C S S p r i n g 2 0 0 9 | 1 5
Why I chose to
pledge a legacy
to RBGE…
You asked me why I decided to
remember RBGE in my will.
I first went to the Garden
when I worked for a time in
Edinburgh some 40 years ago.
Since then I have courted
there, pushed at various times
all my four children round in
pushchairs, sought solace there
at times of emotional distress,
and most recently at age 65+
courted there again following
the death of my wife. (No more children though!)
I have been there, I estimate,
getting on for a hundred
times. It is about the only
place in the world that has
only happy memories for me;
no negative memories or
feelings at all. There are not many places like that.
John Dobson
Legacies are a vital source of support
for RBGE. If you would like to support
the Garden’s future by remembering
us in your will you can find out more
information and request a free guide
about making a will by contacting
Lucy Clement on 0131 248 2984, by
emailing [email protected] or by
visiting our website www.rbge.org.uk
Greenfingers
Grow your own natural fly paper, says Garden Supervisor
Pete Brownless.
In 1875 Charles Darwin
published his groundbreaking work on
carnivorous plants, in
which he tried to explain
how it was possible for a
plant to trap and digest
an insect. This must have
seemed to be a work
of fiction to much of
his nineteenth-century
audience. But today it is
possible to grow your own
carnivorous plants and
they make fascinating and
educational house plants.
Cape sundews, Drosera
capensis are native to
South Africa, and are one
of the most common
carnivorous plants grown
in cultivation. Darwin
was lucky enough to
receive a descendant
of one of the original
introductions to
compare with our native
Drosera rotundifolia.
The sticky substance
secreted on the leaves, combined
with a slow engulfing process by the
leaf, make them extremely effective
fly catchers. They also sparkle in
sunlight, hence the common name.
By growing a group together you
will have a dazzling display that will
mesmerise any passing insect; they
are so effective at fly catching that
you will never have to hand feed them!
Butterwort (Pinguicula sp.), pitcher
plants (Sarracenia sp.) and the Venus
flytrap (Dionaea muscipula) make
excellent and dynamic companions.
Cape sundews are also very easy to grow, and an adult plant will reach
up to 15 cm tall. Simply keep the
bottom quarter of the pot submerged
in water – if your tap water is alkaline
use rainwater. Keep in good light and do not feed. If the room’s
atmosphere is dry, stand the pot
on a tray of pebbles to increase the humidity.
Cape sundews will often flower
in summer and can be either pink or
white. Seeds are often produced and
these germinate easily. Sown on the
surface of moist organic compost they will germinate in three weeks and in less than a year they will be fully grown adults.
There is an exciting display of
sinister carnivorous plants from around the world in the Montane
Tropics House in Edinburgh.
Illustration: Drosera capensis from Curtis's
Botanical Magazine 1881, Vol. 107, plate 6583.
1 6 | T H E B O T A NI C S S p r i n g 2 0 0 9
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Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh
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Open daily (except 25 December and 1 January)
Inverleith Row, Edinburgh, EH3 5LR
Tel: 0131 552 7171 Email: [email protected]
Admission to the Garden is free; charge applies to the Glasshouses.
•
Benmore Botanic Garden
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Open daily 1 March to 31 October
Dunoon, Argyll, PA23 8QU
Tel: 01369 706261 Email: [email protected]
Admission charge applies.
•
Logan Botanic Garden
Open Sundays only in February
Open daily 1 March to 31 October
Port Logan, Dumfries and Galloway, DG9 9ND
Tel: 01776 860231 Email: [email protected]
Admission charge applies.
•
Top prize A day spent at the
Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh
with RBGE’s professional photographer,
and your winning photograph published
in the Botanics magazine.
For details pick up an entry form in the Garden
(Edinburgh, Benmore, Dawyck or Logan) or download
it from www.rbge.org.uk
Dawyck Botanic Garden
Photos (main, left to right): Hon W Yau, Pat Rambaut, R M Speed and John Avison.
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Open daily 1 February to 30 November
Stobo, Scottish Borders, EH45 9JU
Tel: 01721 760254 Email: [email protected]
Admission charge applies.
•
For further information about the Gardens visit
www.rbge.org.uk
For a What’s On guide, contact Catherine Mouat
Tel: 0131 248 2991 Email: [email protected]
•
The Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh is a Charity registered in Scotland (number SC007983) and is supported by the Scottish Government Rural and
Environmental Research and Analysis Directorate.