UNLOCKING THE POWER OF PLANTS
O
ur features writer Abigail Carruthers (Tanners) gives us an insight into her amazing work at Kew Gardens.
paths lead past olive trees, the Cork Oak and Italian Cypress, and that distinctive ‘Mediterranean’ smell lingers in the air.
Kew Gardens is the world leader in plant science and conservation, as well as having some spectacular gardens. I was privileged to work there this year for a while, in the Jodrell Laboratory.
Behind the scenes at Kew, vital work is going on in horticulture and science. Plants and fungi are needed to support every ecosystem, providing food and shelter for animals and humans. Kew works to protect plants and fungi and uncover their potential uses. Horticulturists find out the growing conditions needed by very rare plants. For example, café marron is a wild relative of the coffee plant that grows on a tiny island in the Indian Ocean. It was thought to be almost extinct. Samples were found and sent to Kew. At Kew, horticulturists managed to get the plant to root and eventually produce fruit. New plants were sent back to their natural habitat to re-establish a stable wild population.
If you have visited, you will remember the extensive gardens and huge trees; or perhaps the highlight of your visit was the glasshouses? There is something exciting about entering and being transported to exotic lands. Enter the Princess of Wales Conservatory, walk through the desert, with a huge variety of cacti, succulents and trees such as the baobab. Then, through some doors, and into the hot, damp, tropical rainforest. Here, if you are lucky, you might even spot a lizard or a chameleon! There is always something new to encounter when exploring Kew. My favourite part is the Mediterranean Garden. Narrow
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Freemen Magazine
Kew is home to the largest plant collection in the world. 5,000 living plants, including 14,000 trees, make up the ‘living collection’. The Herbarium houses dried plant
