Ouch! Things are tough all over, even at Kew.

When people think of botanical gardens, if they know their stuff, they think of Kew. Botanical gardens are not just pretty places, they do lots of what you would generally call conservation biology that are increasingly impossible or incompatible with university botanical science.  It takes no small number of people to run a garden like Kew, knowledgeable people, skilled people, and even still these people do not make salaries that make other people say, "Wow, there's real money in that science stuff!"  In that sense, the staff at Kew are a lot like faculty at university, and clearly their value, the value of Kew and its work are of little value, a low priority, especially when dealing with politicians who have not gotten beyond thinking of gardens as just pretty places (or universities as places for "job training".  Some belt tightening is a continuing fact of our present times, but when faced with a massive budget cut, it's not just fat getting cut. You begin to gut the institution, and it's ability to carry out a science mission, especially when it would mean a 20% cut in staffing.  A similar event took place at a similar institution in Brooklyn, but it was even more drastic a change, the BBG stopped doing science all together and fired its science staff in toto.  A similar personnel cut also took place at the Field Museum of Natural History. Science is pricey, but it isn't a luxury, and unfortunately it isn't at all valued. 


Should you wish, you may sign an online petition in support of funding Kew.

Rare plant theft at Kew

Now this really pisses TPP off.  Plant theft in general is annoying, but when the plant is rare to the point of being extinct in the wild, and it's hard to grow to boot, and it may occupy a critical place in flowering plant evolution, then it's worth drinking a few pints while deciding if any imaginable punishment is sufficient.  And then to add insult to injury, you have the "so what" attitude of a member of Parliment who could intellectually qualify as a member of our GnOPe.  It happens everywhere whether it's cycads (Fairchild Gardens) or Wollemia pines that must be grown "jailed" in cages to prevent theft (Royal Botanic Garden, Sydney) or just coffee trees in a university glasshouse (stolen in frigid weather and just as quickly frozen to death). In this case the plant is a waterlily that only grows at the margins of hot springs.  This demonstrates one of the critical roles of botanical gardens around the world.  And this waterlily is so cute, at least to plant people!  But as we all know fuzzy, furry, feathery cute animals get all the conservation attention.  HT to AoB Blog. 

Extinction is forever - A close call for an ebony

Islands are evolutionary laboratories providing genetic isolation of any organism that disperses there with the result that new and novel species often arise that grow no where else.  Then there are those species (just 1) that build boats so that they may disperse more easily, and bring with them their pigs and goats, much to the detriment of endemic species that arose in isolation from such organisms.  Here's a story of a near brush with extinction, the St. Helena's ebony.  Long thought extinct, two bushes were found growing on a cliff beyond the reach of grazing goats.  With the assistance of Kew Gardens, this species' extinction has been forestalled for now, by using these two survivors to propogate new plants, something not easily done without today's biotechnical tools.  Without botanical gardens with such conservation programs the situation around the world would be much worse.  Of course, what difference does such a species make?  Why should we care?  Why should we expend so many resources rescuing this tree?  Maybe next time the species will be something really important, and knowing how to do it would be a good thing.  And who are you to judge this species of no consequence?  And to give you some idea what TPP means, parochial dolts, unfortunately dolts put in charge of higher education, wonder why we "waste" time and money teaching our students about rain forest as if all that matters, or should matter, takes place within the non-biological borders of Lincolnland. 

What do botanists do when not in their office or lab?

Field work!  Protecting biodiversity is a tough job, and biologists are racing against extinction, mostly from habitat loss, and now perhaps from climate change.  To help document and preserve plant biodiversity requires documenting species with specimens and in the case of rare species collecting seeds.  Usually you don't find important specimens growing in city parks, so field botanists end up in very remote areas where access can be difficult.  Sit down at a table of field botanists, buy them some beer, and ask them how many vehicle axles they've broken.  Ask them how many times they've been bogged down in the mud.  Ask them how many times they've been drenched trying to keep their specimens safe and dry.  Ask them about the worst illness or parasite they ever picked up in the field.  Everyone of them will have a story.  Even TPP has his blood enshrined in the CDC for bringing home a disease organisms fortunately without its vector.  Here's a nice promotional/educational film of a field expedition out of Kew Gardens on a plant collecting trip.  A short segment starting at about 6:30 shows you some views of the spiny forest in Madagascar.  HT to Agricultural Biodiversity who always finds the best stuff.

Someone else's so-so Magnolia collection

OK, maybe Kew Gardens has a magnolia collection a bit better than the Phactor's, but then they are a bit bigger, and a bit older too.  Enjoy.

250th is a good year for Kew Gardens

The Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew celebrated its 250th birthday in 2009, and during this year botanists working there added over 250 new plant species (actually 292) to science. This feat and the amount of taxonomic research taking place at Kew can be put into perspective when you understand that on average about 1000 new plant species are described each year (Kew averages 200.). This accomplishment does not come easily. It took people working in the field collecting specimens in over 100 countries, collecting thousands of specimens, and then matching and comparing them with what is known, only to find some few that remain unknown. A rather frightening finding (at least it is if you know something about biology and diversity) is that nearly a third of these new species are in danger of extinction largely through habitat destruction. And of course knowing what exists and where diversity exists is the scientific basis for conservation efforts. If you want to see some of these discoveries and read more about them, visit the Kew Gardens web page.
OK, the Phytophactor had to pick his favorite new species, Isoetes eludens, a quillwort, which is part of the most ancient living lineage of vascular plants, the clubmosses. Wow! Doesn't that just take your breath away! Quillworts are a lot more common than people think because most people just don’t frog around in their shallow water habitats checking out reedy looking plants. When the water dries up quillworts die back to a perennial corm. Although they do not look it, quillworts are living descendents of arborescent lycopods of the Carboniferous era. Hey, don’t mock it, birds mostly don’t look like dinosaurs either. This one was found by Stephen Hopper, Kew's director, in temporary rock pools in South Africa, a country that is a hot bed of plant diversity .
HT to a BBC news story.