̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge - Botanic Garden

̽��ֱ��artist who made ink from Newton's Apple Tree

lw355 — Mon, 16 Oct 2023 07:11:26 +0000

Nabil Ali is discovering the natural colours hidden within the berries, blooms and bark found in the Cambridge ̽��ֱ�� Botanic Garden – including from a very special tree.

Planting ideas: Botanic Garden opens access with living collections portal

ta385 — Fri, 02 Oct 2020 07:30:00 +0000

A new web portal to Cambridge ̽��ֱ�� Botanic Garden's entire living collection, 14,000 plants, aims to open access and fast-track urgent global research.

Unexpected experiences: Beverley Glover discusses keeping the Botanic Gardens open online

zs332 — Tue, 07 Jul 2020 08:00:50 +0000

In the second of a new series, Beverley Glover talks about keeping the gardens open online and the apprehension welcoming visitors back in person.

New ‘Rising Path’ opens at Cambridge ̽��ֱ�� Botanic Garden

sjr81 — Thu, 20 Sep 2018 11:04:00 +0000

̽��ֱ��Rising Path is part of the Garden’s Understanding Plant Diversity Project, a three year project supported by ̽��ֱ��Monument Trust, which aims to revitalise the contemporary relevance of the Garden’s Systematic Beds for researchers, teachers and visitors by exploring how plant diversity is identified and organised – the science of plant taxonomy.

Professor Beverley Glover, Director of the Botanic Garden, said: “We are thrilled to be opening the Rising Path to the public. This innovative structure is a key part of an ongoing project to re-examine, re-interpret and re-display our Systematic Beds which will help visitors, students and scientists to understand more about plants, how they are related, and why this is so important for science.”

Rising Path Project Manger, Juliet Day, said: “Observation is the cornerstone of all scientific enquiry and plants are full of shapes, patterns, numbers, colours, textures, symmetry, scents and tastes to discover. We have developed the Rising Path and created interpretation displays to encourage visitors of all ages to explore the Systematic Beds and enjoy looking more closely at plants.”

̽��ֱ��Rising Path leads to a viewing platform where visitors will be able to see the full extent and layout of the Systematic Beds from a 3m high vantage point. Rest points along the path highlight the innovations that allowed plants to leave the water for life on land and to proliferate into the 400,000 species known today.

At ground level, an interpretation hub expands on the twin educational purpose of the Systematic Beds: how to look at plants, and how to organise those plants in order to provide a robust framework for effective research and communication.

Added Glover “For thousands of years, humans have grouped plants into families based on observation made using the naked eye. Today, scientists also study the DNA of plants to determine relationships. Changes in scientific understanding pose interesting challenges for a Garden that seeks to be both guardian of a historic landscape and relevant to contemporary research.”

̽��ֱ��Systematic Beds occupy nearly three acres of CUBG and are of global heritage significance. They were designed in 1845 by CUBG’s first Curator, Andrew Murray, and their design uniquely translates the leading botanic text book of the time by Augustin de Candolle into a display on the ground to represent and teach plant taxonomy - the science of identifying and classifying plant species.

̽��ֱ��Understanding Plant Diversity project, which includes the Rising Path, seeks to ensure the Systematic Beds remain a useful teaching tool in the modern world. When renovation is complete in 2019, the Systematic Beds will represent 1,600 plant species belonging to about 78 families dispersed across 119 beds.

A new Rising Path, designed to offer a fresh perspective on Cambridge ̽��ֱ�� Botanic Garden’s historic Systematic Beds, will open to the public on Saturday (September 22, 2018).

Observation is the cornerstone of all scientific enquiry and plants are full of shapes, patterns, numbers, colours, textures, symmetry, scents and tastes to discover.

Juliet Day

̽��ֱ��text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Images, including our videos, are Copyright © ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge and licensors/contributors as identified. All rights reserved. We make our image and video content available in a number of ways – as here, on our main website under its Terms and conditions, and on a range of channels including social media that permit your use and sharing of our content under their respective Terms.

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Illuminating the hidden kingdom of the truffle

lw355 — Mon, 12 Feb 2018 11:00:12 +0000

“A unique aroma, a combination of newly plowed soil, fall rain, burrowing earthworms and the pungent memory of lost youth and old love affairs,” wrote the late American food writer Josh Ozersky about truffles.

His sensual words echo the almost hedonistic regard with which truffles are held, and go some way to explaining a price tag of around £1,700 per kilo for rarer species like the Périgord black truffle, and predictions that global sales of truffles will reach several billion GBP annually in the next decades.

Yet very little is known about the biology and ecology of these unassuming-looking fungi that grow naturally in connection with the fine root systems of trees.

Now, with the help of a well-experienced ‘truffle dog’ called Lucy and the Cambridge ̽��ֱ�� Botanic Garden, researchers from Cambridge’s Department of Geography have begun a ‘natural’ experiment to study the seasonal changes and productivity of the Burgundy truffle.

More common than the Périgord black truffle and the rarer-still white Alba truffle, Burgundy truffles are found across Europe and the eastern part of England, including in the 40-acre Botanic Garden planted by Charles Darwin’s mentor Professor John Stevens Henslow in 1846.

“We really don’t know much about the life of a truffle,” explains Professor Ulf Büntgen who, with PhD student Elisabeth Johnson, hopes to discover how, when and where truffles grow and mature, how their spores are dispersed and by which animals, and how their lifecycle is affected by changing environmental conditions, including climate.

“Truffles are remarkable organisms and interesting ambassadors for our fascinating but fragile soil ecosystems, which are considered one of the last big frontiers in science,” says Johnson. “Being able to delve into the mysteries of one of their enigmatic inhabitants is thrilling, especially since they are directly linked to above-ground biodiversity through their partnership with trees – it’s a meeting of two worlds.”

“ ̽��ֱ��beauty of using the Garden for this kind of research is that we have over 8,000 plant species and we’ve been here for 170 years. ̽��ֱ��trees have had lots of time to establish connections with truffles,” adds Professor Beverley Glover, Director of the Garden.

Truffles live in symbiotic partnership with a host tree – the plant delivers sugars and the fungi provide nutrients. However, as soon as the truffle is unearthed, the truffle’s ecosystem, including its mutualistic partnership, is destroyed.

“No-one has succeeded in creating the necessary complexity of real-world conditions in a normal lab to understand the below-ground lifecycle of the truffle,” explains Büntgen. “ ̽��ֱ��Cambridge ̽��ֱ�� Botanic Garden is an almost perfect living laboratory, potentially allowing us a glimpse into the life cycle and community structures of truffles across time and space. It is an immense privilege to be able to carry out this kind of research at this historic site.”

̽��ֱ��Garden was founded to support the ̽��ֱ��’s teaching and research, which it still does today. “What’s exciting about this project for the Garden team are the many ‘firsts’,” says Glover. “It’s the first time we’ve looked at the truffles below our trees, the first time we’ve had a dog involved in research, and as far as we know it’s the first time in the world that anyone has looked at which species of tree these truffles can grow on.”

One area of interest to the researchers is the possibility of climate-induced range shifts in the habitats of truffles. Büntgen’s previous research looked at why yields of the Périgord truffle in Spain, France and Italy have been in decline since the mid-1970s. His work using tree rings as a read-out for the effect of climate on growth showed that falling Mediterranean truffle harvests coincided both with drier summers and reduced growth of Spanish oaks.

In another recent study, Büntgen described the first cultivation of Périgord black truffles in the UK, suggesting that black truffles are able to grow far outside their native habitat.

“Ecological range shifts can have implications for rural tourism, regional agriculture and global prices,” he adds. “We hope that new understanding of the hidden life of the Burgundy truffle will help us to understand the environmental drivers of the growth and maturation of other members of this remarkable family.”

̽��ֱ��results from the long-term Botanic Garden experiment will be combined with a larger study of around 30 sites in Switzerland, Germany and Spain.

Lucy will be vital to the success of the project. Büntgen trained his family pet in just four days. Given the chance, she would happily search the undergrowth for many hours simply for the pleasure of finding, digging up and wolfing down one of these nutty-smelling delicacies.

“You never train a dog to smell a truffle – they smell everything. You just train the connection. Lucy is a hunting dog that likes food – she’d harvest for six hours in a row if we let her. Without a dog like Lucy you simply don’t know where to dig.”

Once Lucy has found a truffle, the researchers move in quickly, before she has the chance to snaffle the luxury. As she happily eats her own reward, Büntgen and Johnson take measurements, recording aspects of the truffle and its environment, including its host tree, before removing it for further analysis.

Meanwhile Johnson has decided not to eat truffles for the duration of her PhD: “I find them far too fascinating to eat. Discovering truffles as living beings in our complex ecosystems as a whole gives me immense delight. When not removing them in the name of science, we try to leave their habitat relatively undisturbed to understand how they interact with wildlife and how they unfold new living networks within the deeply fascinating and little-understood world below our feet.”

All truffles unearthed at the Botanic Garden are for research purposes.

Truffles are one of the world’s most expensive ingredients, and also one of the most mysterious. Now, with the help of a 170-year-old ‘living laboratory’, and a dog called Lucy, researchers hope to unearth new understanding of the secret life of these underground delicacies.

Truffles are remarkable organisms and interesting ambassadors for our fascinating but fragile soil ecosystems

Elizabeth Johnson

Illuminating the hidden kingdom of the truffle

̽��ֱ��text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. For image use please see separate credits above.

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World's botanic gardens contain a third of all known plant species, and help protect the most threatened

fpjl2 — Mon, 25 Sep 2017 15:00:29 +0000

̽��ֱ��world's botanic gardens contain at least 30% of all known plant species, including 41% of all those classed as 'threatened', according to the most comprehensive analysis to date of diversity in 'ex-situ' collections: those plants conserved outside natural habitats.

̽��ֱ��study, published today in the journal Nature Plants, found that the global network of botanic gardens conserves living plants representing almost two-thirds of plant 'genera' (the classification above species) and over 90% of plant families.

However, researchers from the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge discovered a significant imbalance between temperate and tropical regions. ̽��ֱ��vast majority of all plants species grown ex-situ are held in the northern hemisphere.

Consequently, some 60% of temperate plant species were represented in botanic gardens but only 25% of tropical species, despite the fact that the majority of plant species are tropical.

For the study, researchers analysed datasets compiled by Botanic Gardens Conservation International (BGCI). They cross-referenced the working list of known plant species – currently sitting at 350,699 – with the species records of a third of botanic gardens on the planet, some 1,116 institutions. They say this provides a "minimum estimate" for the plant diversity held in botanic gardens.

However, while gardens hold approaching half all threatened species, just 10% of overall storage capacity is dedicated to such plants. ̽��ֱ��researchers argue that botanic gardens are of "critical importance to plant conservation", and internationally coordinated efforts are needed to house even more species at risk of extinction – particularly those from tropical climates.

" ̽��ֱ��global network of botanic gardens is our best hope for saving some of the world's most endangered plants," said senior author Dr Samuel Brockington, a researcher at Cambridge's Department of Plant Sciences as well as a curator at the ̽��ֱ��'s own Botanic Garden.

"Currently, an estimated one fifth of plant diversity is under threat, yet there is no technical reason why any plant species should become extinct. Botanic gardens protect an astonishing amount of plant diversity in cultivation, but we need to respond directly to the extinction crisis.

"If we do not conserve our plant diversity, humanity will struggle to solve the global challenges of food and fuel security, environmental degradation, and climate change."

̽��ֱ��plants not currently grown in botanic gardens are often more interesting than those that are, say the researchers. Hydrostachys polymorpha, for example, an African aquatic plant that only grows in fast flowing streams and waterfalls, or the tiny parasitic plant Pilostyles thurberi – only a few millimetres long, it lives completely within the stem tissue of desert shrubs.

Species from the most ancient plant lineages, termed 'non-vascular' plants, are currently almost undocumented in botanic gardens – with as few as 5% of all species stored in the global network. These include plants such as the liverworts and mosses.

"Non-vascular species are the living representatives of the first plants to colonise the land," said Brockington. "Within these plants are captured key moments in the early evolutionary history of life on Earth, and they are essential for understanding the evolution of plants."

From the spectacular new Gardens by the Bay in Singapore to London's own legendary Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, the world's botanic gardens collectively host 500 million visitors a year.

"As a professional community, botanic gardens conserve and manage a far greater array of plant diversity than any other sector. However, we still have much to do." said Dr Paul Smith, study co-author and Secretary General of BGCI.

"This study is extremely important because it will enable us to target our efforts much more effectively, and work together to ensure that plant species don't needlessly become extinct," Smith said.

̽��ֱ��most in-depth species survey to date finds an “astonishing array” of plant diversity in the global botanic garden network, including 41% of all endangered species. However, researchers find a significant imbalance between tropical and temperate plants, and say even more capacity should be given to conservation, as there is “no technical reason for plant species to become extinct”.

̽��ֱ��global network of botanic gardens is our best hope for saving some of the world's most endangered plants

Samuel Brockington

CUBG

Cambridge ̽��ֱ�� Botanic Garden (CUBG)

̽��ֱ��text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. For image use please see separate credits above.

Yes

Cambridge ̽��ֱ�� set to blitz the Botanic Garden

Anonymous — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 15:47:20 +0000

This intense and rewarding 24-hour survey of biodiversity aims to bring together the scientific and wider community.

̽��ֱ��race begins at 5pm on Friday July 22^nd. For a 24-hour period, experts, volunteers and members of the public alike will be racing against the clock to count and catalogue the booming population of life within the Garden.

This now national event aims to recognise the biodiversity of a single area, even in a city location such as Cambridge. After originating in America, BioBlitz locations can now be found up and down the country. This has enabled large numbers of people to get directly involved in the surveying and monitoring of their local area.

Activities throughout the day will allow the public to simply drop in and join the project. Throughout the night the study will continue to create an accurate portrait of a day in the life of the Botanic Garden.

In only its second year, BioBlitz has already shown to be an enriching, informative and inclusive experiment. All are welcome to take part; however some activities will require booking. Last year the event brought together a range of organisations and university departments, allowing the day to offer some unique opportunities.

This year boasts a host of activities with the ̽��ֱ�� Department of Zoology running snail and bumble bee workshops. In addition there will be surveys of bug, bat and small mammal life in the garden, as well as early morning introduction to bird song. It promises to be a hands-on day with plenty to be done and learnt.

Ros Wade, from Cambridge ̽��ֱ��’s Museum of Zoology, is enthusiastic about BioBlitz’s potential. She said: “ ̽��ֱ��Public can learn how to observe wildlife and discover the great diversity of animal and plant life living on their doorstep.”

Set to the stunning backdrop of Cambridge ̽��ֱ��’s Botanic Garden, the Zoology Department is once again going on a BioBlitz.

timpeatic via flickr

Swallowtail Close-up

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