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Plantago moorei Rahn, Holotype at RNG
Detail of shoot tip of Plantago moorei Rahn from Holotype The herbarium at Reading University has a large collection of plants from Tierra Del Fuego and the Falkland Islands collected by Professor...
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Chelsea Flower Show 2017
The Chelsea Flower Show is without doubt one of the most famous flower shows in the world. This year, I had the chance to work with commercial and amateur gorwers of carnivorous plants to put together...
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#AdventBotany Day 16: Cardamom: The Queen of Spices
By Maria Christodoulou & Kalman Konyves With Christmas approaching quickly, many of you are braving the cold and crowds to complete your Christmas shopping. If you do have time for a break you may...
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#AdventBotany Day 17: A tough nut to crack!
By Alastair Culham A single tree of the brazil nut Filling your lap with the sharp fragments of nut shells as you work through a bowl of shell-on nuts is one of the pleasures of Christmas. Less fun is...
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#AdventBotany Day 18: Cyclamen persicum: a Christmas misnomer?
By Karen Andrews Photo by Karen Andrews They say that you should never judge a book by its cover. Walter C. Blasdale’s ‘Cyclamen persicum: Its Natural and Cultivated Forms’ is an unassuming, concise...
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#AdventBotany Day 19: Christmas Kalanchoe – Kalanchoe blossfeldiana
By Will Simpson by Wildfeuer (own work) [GDFL + CC BY 2.5] via wikimedia commonsThe genus Kalanchoe (the preferred pronunciation is kal-un-KOH-ee(1)) belongs to the Crassulaceae family. Like other...
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#AdventBotany Day 20: Holly
By Patricia Francis Christmas gift tags from Gallery Oldham collection. The Winter Solstice has been celebrated in many cultures for thousands of years. In our northern latitudes evergreens show how...
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#AdventBotany Day 21: The qulliq brings light and heat to Canada’s Inuit...
By Dawn Bazely Christmas day at the North Pole is dark. In Inuit Nunangat, the Inuit homelands of Canada, the Arctic Circle (66.6 degrees), marks the latitude where the noon sun is just visible on...
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#AdventBotany Day 22: Put a cork in it
By Ali Ayres Wine corks. Composite (upper), cut (lower) (Photo A. Culham) It’s decided, 2017 is the year I finally contribute to this fine festive botanical blogging tradition. But what should I write...
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#AdventBotany Day 23: Rosemary, love and controversy
By Alastair Culham Rosemary makes a tasty addition to many savoury dishes. My favourite is a rub of salt and crushed fresh rosemary leaves put on potatoes before roasting but it’s also lovely with lamb...
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#AdventBotany Day 24: Juniperus communis – the most delicious of the...
By Meg Cathcart-James Juniperus communis with cones Juniperus communis is the most widespread of the juniper species. Juniperus is within the conifer family Cupressaceae. Whether as a small evergreen...
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#AdventBotany Christmas Day: A rose with no thorns; eyes without sight
By Alastair Culham This is the 100th #AdventBotany blog and the fourth for Christmas day. The first Christmas blog featured the Star of Bethlehem, the second, Christmas Cactus, and the third, a tough...
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#AdventBotany 2018, Day 16: The snowiest of white
By Tomos Jones Dreaming of a white Christmas? Well, the plant for today’s blog is Symphoricarpos albus, the Snowberry. It’s a member of the Caprifoliaceae or Honeysuckle family, native to North...
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#AdventBotany 2018 Day 17: The Chestnut Song
By Katherine Preston Today’s blog is the second by a Botanist in the Kitchen, this time Katherine. It is a revisit of the sweet chestnut, last featured in 2015 when we heard about the devastating...
View Article#AdventBotany 2018, Day 18: Advent VLOG
By Dawn Bazely Dawn is one of our long-standing contributors and has contributed: poinsettias, cranberries, red-osier dogwood, amaryllis, white cedar, balsam fir, paperwhites, ivy, candy cane...
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#AdventBotany 2018, Day 19: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight; a spot of...
By Alex Mills So, it’s Christmas time. You’re having a bit of food with your friends and family. Well, a lot of food. It’s Christmas, isn’t it? It’s all very convivial and jolly and all that. Suddenly,...
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#AdventBotany 2018, Day 20: Once upon a time: A tale of fairies from the RHS...
By Yvette Harvey I am still pondering why a pagan spirit of the dead, or, more recently a demoted angel, should play such a big part in Christmas – for Christmas certainly wouldn’t be the same without...
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#AdventBotany 2018, Day 21: A botanical pick-me up for the bleak midwinter
By Rachel Webster Rachel’s Coffee With four previous years of Advent Botany I was surprised that none of us have so far covered coffee. OK, it’s not a Christmassy spice, or a festive decoration, but by...
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#AdventBotany 2018, Day 22: Thyme for a good stuffing
By Fi Young Thymus in flower Sage and onion stuffing seems to be the norm for stuffing a Christmas turkey, but what about using thyme? A Google search produced 9 million results! A quick look through...
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#AdventBotany 2018, Day 23: I met Tunnicliffe in a forest of Conifers
by Claire Smith Photo © Claire Smith As children I’m sure we’ve all sprinkled far too much glitter onto a pine cone and hung it from the Christmas tree… but have you ever wondered where your festive...
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