ISSUE 83 SUMMER 2022
CHRIS PACKHAM WHY BIODIVERSITY BEGINS AT HOME
TRUTH AND THE AMAZON RAINFOREST TEA: THE ANATOMY OF A PLANT A BEGINNER’S GUIDE TO FOREST BATHING
DIVE IN OUR CONTRIBUTORS Eva Clifford An Edinburgh-based writer, Eva Clifford has produced features for Huck magazine, British Journal of Photography and LensCulture. She is fascinated by the role nature plays in mental health and wellbeing, and how the human and natural worlds intersect. Harry Borden An acclaimed portrait photographer, Harry Borden has contributed to the New Yorker, Vogue and Time. An honorary fellow of the Royal Photographic Society, he received the TPA/RPS Environmental Bursary. His ongoing project Four Hugs Wide explores our relationship with trees and woodlands. Dr Tiina Sarkinen South American biodiversity researcher at the Garden, Dr Tiina Sarkinen is working on the taxonomy of a clade of Solanum and the phylogeny of Solanaceae. Her biomes work focuses on the Caatinga region in north-east Brazil and she is the co-author of the Amazon checklist.
16 Try forest bathing at Dawyck, home to the Dutch Bridge
IN THIS ISSUE
D HANGEf your C E V ’ ko WE ou thin what y agazine at Tell us m tanics rg.uk new Bo hip@rbge.o s r e b m me
2 THE VIEW An infusion of colour from British-Chinese artist Yan Wang Preston
5 EXPLORE The latest news, exhibitions and events to inspire you
8 GROUNDWORK Join our columnist Fiona Leith on a journey into the world of plants
10 CHRIS PACKHAM The conservationist and broadcaster on why happiness begins with nature
16 FOREST BATHING Take a deep breath and try the Japanese practice at Dawyck
24 THE AMAZON In search of the truth behind the world’s biggest rainforest
28 ANATOMY OF A PLANT How the renowned tea plant (Camellia sinensis) became a gobal player
The Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh is a Non Departmental Public Body (NDPB) sponsored and supported through Grant-in-Aid by the Scottish Government’s Environment and Forestry Directorate (ENFOR). The Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh is a Charity registered in Scotland (number SC007983). Patron HRH The Prince Charles, Duke of Rothesay The Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, 20a Inverleith Row, Edinburgh EH3 5LR 0131 248 2800 rbge.org.uk Consultant Editor Kathleen Morgan kathleen.morgan@thinkpublishing.co.uk Commissioning Editor Andrew Cattanach andrew.cattanach@thinkpublishing.co.uk Group Art Director Jes Stanfield jes.stanfield@thinkpublishing.co.uk Group Managing Editor Sian Campbell sian.campbell@thinkpublishing.co.uk Client Engagement Director Clare Harris clare.harris@thinkpublishing.co.uk Advertising Sales Elizabeth Courtney elizabeth.courtney@thinkpublishing.co.uk 0203 771 7208
Botanics is published on behalf of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh by Think thinkpublishing.co.uk Enquiries regarding circulation of Botanics should be addressed to Clare Harris clare.harris@thinkpublishing.co.uk Opinions expressed within 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. Printed by The Manson Group, St Albans. Finished reading? Please pass your copy on or recycle it.
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THE VIEW
Made with love This blaze of colour is part of an audio-visual installation by the British-Chinese artist Yan Wang Preston showing at the John Hope Gateway visitor centre, Edinburgh, until 28 August. With Love. From an Invader explores complex connections between landscape representation, identity, migration and the environment. The artist photographed the same Rhododendron ponticum every other day for a year to reflect on wider issues such as belonging and national identity. She was responding to the contested ecological terms ‘non-native’ and ‘invasive species’. PHOTOGRAPH BY YAN WANG PRESTON RBGE.ORG.UK SUMMER 2022
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EXPLORE
Discover a world of possibility at the Garden, from regeneration to augmented reality
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GLASSHOUSE RESTORATION PROJECT GETS £4M HERITAGE FUND BOOST
The National Lottery Heritage Fund has awarded a £4m grant to help restore the Edinburgh Garden’s historic Glasshouses. The money will support the redisplay of the rare and endangered plant collections held in the two A-listed heritage Palm Houses and the modernist Glasshouses at the centre of the Garden. The Tropical and Temperate Palm Houses are in urgent need of repair. To carry out the work, almost 800 plants must be temporarily relocated.
The fund will also be used to create new interpretations and a programme of visitor activities that will communicate the vulnerability of life on Earth and promote conservation. The restoration project is the centrepiece of the Edinburgh Biomes development project, which is helping to protect our globally significant plant collection for future generations. “The significance of this award of £4m cannot be overestimated,” said Simon Milne MBE, Regius Keeper. “By inspiring everyone to care about the environment and play their part,
there is a real opportunity to make tangible change.” This generous grant has brought us closer to our fundraising goals for the Palm House restoration, and we hope this will attract further gifts and grants for the vital work. Edinburgh Biomes is a seven-year project to create world-leading facilities for research, conservation and education. To support the project, visit rbge.org.uk/supportbiomes RBGE.ORG.UK SUMMER 2022
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EXPLORE
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Soqotra joins list of most endangered sites in the world
Caitlin Paterson; Soqotra Heritage Project
DON’T MISS As part of Scotland’s Year of Stories we’ll host a multisensory journey celebrating tales inspired by the nation’s rich and diverse plant life across our four Gardens. Watch out for Of Scotland’s Soils and Soul: Scotland’s Voices, Telling Scotland’s Stories, Through the World of Plants
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Following a nomination by us and our global partners, the Soqotra Archipelago in Yemen has been placed on the 2022 watchlist of the World Monuments Fund (WMF). The region’s outstanding cultural and national heritage was recognised as one of the world’s priceless assets. Soqotra joins 24 other sites on WMF’s list of significant sites in need of immediate attention.
CONSERVING THE WEIRD AND WONDERFUL
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Darwin specimen from our collection featured on the BBC’s Antiques Roadshow
A botanical specimen collected by Charles Darwin and preserved in the Herbarium was among the rare objects examined by Fiona Bruce in an episode of the BBC series Antiques Roadshow aired on 3 April 2022. The plant, a Gentianella magellanica found in Chile during Darwin’s renowned journey on HMS Beagle, is one of around 80 plant specimens collected by the father of evolutionary theory in the Herbarium collection of three million preserved plants and fungi. Filmed in summer 2021, the episode is the second of three programmes that were shot in the Garden.
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Parasitic plants include some of the most fascinating specimens in the world. Yet they are among the most endangered, often absent from botanic garden collections and conservation strategies. In a new paper published in our journal Sibbaldia, researchers show that at least 76 per cent of the known 4,750 parasitic species are missing from botanical collections and make a case for prioritising the conservation of these biological enigmas. The study – available for free at rbge.org.uk/parasiticplants – looks at examples of successful propagation from around the world and recommends a dedicated global consortium for the conservation of parasitic plants, or a specialist group under the International Union for Conservation of Nature. “This review of the cultivation of one of the trickiest groups of plants is crucial,” says Sibbaldia editor Kate Hughes. “It informs and encourages botanic gardens to take up the challenge of growing them in their living collection.”
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WIN A COPY OF OUR LATEST EDITION With 81 stunning watercolour paintings of plants from Chile, the latest edition of our book is a visual dive into a fascinating part of the world. Plants from the Woods and Forests of Chile shows the beauty and diversity of the nation’s forested areas where for the last 25 years we have worked on collaborative research and conservation initiatives. The book’s author, Martin Gardner, research associate and conifer expert, has spent 30 years working in Chile and is an authority on the cultivation of Chilean plants in the UK. To win a copy of the book worth £45, enter our prize draw by emailing publications@rbge.org.uk with the subject line ‘Woods and Forests of Chile’.
DON’T MISS
Seeing the Invisible, an exhibition featuring 13 augmented reality works by artists including Ai Weiwei and Isaac Julien CBE, runs until August. Download free from the App Store and Google Play or visit rbge.org.uk/seeingtheinvisible
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GROUNDWORK
The future is green As she begins a column exploring all things botanical Fiona Leith says her passion for plants is deeply personal With plants it’s always personal. Whether it is nectar-up-your-nose close contact with a hand lens, or enlightened fascination from afar, it is difficult not to develop something of an emotional spectrum entirely specific to our individual experience of the green stuff of life. Our humanity is so intrinsically linked to their existence, how could it be any other way? Admittedly, I am biased. You are only reading my words here because I have been turned near evangelical in my passion for plants. It can be pretty contagious stuff, and I can be pretty persuasive to boot. I say turned, because it was not always this way. Today I work as a plantswoman supporting nature-based businesses in planting, design and communications, but not that long ago I would have sooner paid for someone to mix my botanicals in a high-end bar than get dirt stuck under my nails growing them. Therein, however, lies the beauty of this new life as a plantswoman, this new me. It is at times so absolutely opposite to anything that came before that it is all the more pleasurable for it. It tickles me, greatly and daily. A career biodiversity crisis, and from soil health to global impasse to recover from a mental breakdown a conservation, every door which opened to new few years ago instigated this transformation. knowledge and experience grounded me further What started as a way to overcome a stunting back into the land we rely upon – and the power fear of social interaction by volunteering at my each of us has to harness and nurture it. local community garden became an entire The world of plant study, science and intellectual and physiological reset which conservation could easily be feared as exclusive and resulted in the study of Horticulture with ‘other’, yet what I have found is a hugely liberating Plantsmanship at these esteemed botanic and democratic community of enthusiasts, ranging gardens. Over the course of a few years, my eyes from a botany lecturer who made my studies come were opened to the realities, possibilities and alive with comedic and encyclopaedic knowledge, challenges our natural world offers and faces to my horticultural mentor who saw community and the pivotal role plants play in it all. greenspaces and biodiversity as the solution to all of It was truly humbling. It was also an life’s woes. How could I argue with him over a cold awakening. From food insecurity to the Friday night beer on an orchard verandah after sowing a wildflower meadow for a generation still to come? He appeared to have a valid point. That is my point, in essence. Plants are personal Fiona Leith is a graduate of Horticulture with Plantsmanship at their core because it is our individual noticing of at RBGE/SRUC. She now runs them that allows both them and us to grow, share her own business as The and flourish in this world. It is the most symbiotic Plantswoman, supporting Scottish nature and gardens. of partnerships. We have to be alive to them. We have to stay alive. Shutterstock
TRY THIS
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Move over Wordle
My favourite kind of postcard at this time of year is a plant postcard. Move over Wordle – there is nothing more brain scratching than two friends battling to identify an enthusiastically blurry snapshot.
Under cover
A tree throwing you some shade? Be grateful it’s cooling our climate and your coupon. My favourite dappled spots have to be the giant redwood enclaves at Benmore.
Best-laid plans
In your garden, if the alliums, irises, foxgloves and lupins are performing to plan, it’s never too early to stake and prop for prolonged midlayer height in the summer border.
DOWN TO EARTH His sanctuary is the woodland enveloping his home, but broadcaster and conservationist Chris Packham is just as comfortable on the frontline of the biodiversity debate WORDS: SUSAN FLOCKHART PORTRAITS: HARRY BORDEN HonFRPS
INTERVIEW
If trees could talk, Chris Packham would happily spend his life conversing with a loquacious old beech that grows near his New Forest home. Ancient, massively girthed and bearing centuries-old graffiti, it is, says the eminent naturalist, “a magnificent organism” and he often sits by it thinking of all those who have loved, lost and cried beneath its shade. As a presenter of TV wildlife programmes such as Springwatch and Yellowstone Live, Packham has explored some of the world’s great wildernesses, but his natural habitat is a corner of the Hampshire countryside he has loved since childhood. “I enjoy exploring other environments, of course,” he says, “but I never feel as at home in them as I do in that type of woodland. It’s what made me. I feel a part of it.” Whenever he walks in those woods with his dogs, he makes “a sort of pilgrimage” to the old beech, whose unfathomable age puts his own life into perspective. “I sit under that tree to make myself feel small and insignificant, as indeed I am.” At 61, Chris Packham still oozes youthful exuberance as he lopes through the undergrowth, training binoculars on bird nests or badger setts and radiating an infectious love for plants and animals. But when his time comes, his ashes will be scattered around that tree’s roots, so he’ll be nourishing its leaves for years to come. He seems always to have yearned to fuse with the natural world. As a nature-mad child, he’d investigate local pondlife by tasting tadpoles, and he continues to approach flora and fauna with the full force of his extraordinarily acute senses, scenting when a tree breaks into bud and picking out the tones of blackbird, chaffinch or blue tit from a cacophony of song. Over his lifetime, however, his local soundscape has altered dramatically. “Even in the 1980s, birdsong in those woods was almost deafening,” he says. “Now, you have to listen for it. The RBGE.ORG.UK SUMMER 2022
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INTERVIEW
‘It’s one planet with one massive problem and one chance to sort it’ diversity of plants has also declined, largely due to the overgrazing by deer, cattle and ponies. There are more wildflowers in my garden than there are probably in the surrounding five miles of the national park, which is a sad indictment of terrible mismanagement of one of our potentially richest natural resources.” Clearly, the biodiversity crisis – which sees natural habitats being reduced by farming, urbanisation, pollution and climate change – is happening on his home turf. Globally, the UN reports that some two billion hectares of land are degraded, threatening one million plant and animal species with extinction. Here in the UK, the latest State of Nature report showed that 41 per cent of all UK species studied have declined since the 1970s, with hedgehog and common toad populations shrinking by 95 per cent and 68 per cent respectively since the 1950s. Meanwhile, swifts, cuckoos and greenfinches are among 70 bird species on conservationists’ ‘red list’ of concern. The crisis has huge implications for humankind. Packham describes the Amazon rainforest as “the lungs of the world and the greatest terrestrial repository of biodiversity”. Yet over the space of a single year, from August 2018 to July 2019, it lost more than 3,800 square miles of forest. “To say that we’re playing with fire with these ecosystems is an understatement of some magnitude,” he says. “[Brazilian president Jair] Bolsonaro and his government are not being held to account by the rest of the world because we feel it’s a Brazilian problem. Well, it isn’t. We’re dependent on that rainforest as much as the people of Brazil are. It’s one planet with one massive problem and one chance to sort it out.” 12
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Male fern, photographed by Chris Packham in the woodland surrounding his New Forest home
Packham’s passion for his subject is palpable. What frustrates him is that catastrophe can be averted if the biodiversity and climate crisis is accorded the same level of urgency and human ingenuity that produced Covid vaccines within a year. “When it comes to restoration, recovery, reintroduction, we have, as environmentalists and conservationists, a great portfolio of methods which would enable us to stop the rot and repair it,” says Packham, listing success stories such as the reintroduction of red kites and the “world-beating” Cairngorms Connect rewilding programme.
Progress is being stalled, he says, by a dreadful inertia perpetuated by governments’ inadequacy. However, he hopes programmes such as Springwatch and organisations such as the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh can help shift mindsets. “What we seek to do indirectly on television is to inspire people to develop an affinity with nature,” he explains. “What the Garden does – better, because it’s a first-hand experience – is, it welcomes people to look at an enormously rich and diverse repository of life from all over the world. So, visitors don’t just see it on a flat screen, they get to feel it, hear it, smell it, touch it, which can be far more engaging. But the overall purpose is the
Wood anemone, photographed by Chris Packham using infrared
‘The Garden welcomes people to look at an enormously rich and diverse repository of life’ same – to inspire people and show them the value of life.” The countryside has been a lifesaver for Chris Packham, who has spoken openly about his struggles with depression. A household name since the mid-1980s when he presented CBBC’s
The Really Wild Show, he was diagnosed in his 40s with a form of autism and in the 2020 documentary Asperger’s and Me he admitted he’d “spent 30 years on the telly trying my best to act normal when I’m really anything but”. Growing up in suburban Southampton, he struggled to connect with people and his 2016 memoir, Fingers in the Sparkle Jar, revealed a friendless little boy who sought solace in his obsession with nature and an intense relationship with a young kestrel. When it was voted the UK’s favourite piece of nature writing, beating classics by the likes of Gilbert White and Nan Shepherd, he quipped this was “Boaty McBoatface in book form”.
The author of more than a dozen books, Packham is working on his next when we meet online. As it happens, he’s stuck on the 11th floor of a skyscraper in a Chilean mining town where he’d been filming Earth, a fivepart BBC documentary series on the origins of the planet, until one of the crew tested positive for Covid-19. Surprisingly, the outdoorsman seems remarkably sanguine about having spent seven days isolating in a drab hotel room. He’s been reading poetry, catching up on emails, writing articles and making progress with his book. “The time hasn’t gone to waste,” he insists. I doubt Chris Packham has ever wasted a nanosecond. He’s also an RBGE.ORG.UK SUMMER 2022
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INTERVIEW
‘What we seek to do indirectly on television is to inspire people to develop an affinity with nature’
Bernardo Segura
award-winning nature photographer, despite finding the pursuit “inherently disappointing, frustrating and annoying” because he’s never happy with the results. And this summer, he’ll be filming a BBC series about autism which will explore the challenges and positives of living with the condition. His own ability to see and remember things in intricate detail is a case in point. Sometimes, Packham suffers sensory overload and when he describes a blaze of woodland colour as “so green it hurts” he really means it. Yet his acute powers of perception have also been instrumental in his mission to observe, understand and protect nature, and encourage others to do the same. If the pandemic has taught us anything, he says, it’s that spending time in places like botanic gardens is good for us. When the first UK lockdown began in March 2020, he posted a challenge on social media: “What are we going to do to stay sane and mentally healthy? Well, I know what I’m going to do – I’m going to be listening to those robins, spending time outdoors and reconnecting with nature.” And with that, The Self-Isolating Bird Club was born. Over the following months he and stepdaughter Megan McCubbin – a fellow Springwatch presenter – invited followers to “find light in the darkness” by sharing wildlife sightings, and more than half-a-million tuned in to their daily webcam live feeds. Having inspired us to love nature, Packham wants to empower people to seek change, starting by taking control of our own gardens or window boxes and 14
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making them richer places for plants, animals, our neighbours and ourselves. Happy to put his trowel where his mouth is, he’s spent the past year planting thousands of wildflowers and hundreds of trees across his own plot, protecting it with a new deer fence. Beyond the national park’s boundaries, he’s working with local landowners on a collaborative rewilding project. Together, they’ve dug ponds, built bat boxes and adopted woodland management techniques that are already paying dividends in terms of the regeneration of beech, oak and hazel, as well as bluebells, celandines, wood anemones, ferns and fungi. The New Forest might have been reduced to “an overgrazed billiard table” in parts but, says Packham: “That doesn’t dull my love for the place or desire to continue to make it better. So, I start at home, inside that deer fence. I plant my trees. They will not get nibbled to death;
they will reach some sense of maturity – not in my lifetime, but hopefully someone else will keep it fenced and they’ll grow and be productive.” Perhaps one of those saplings will grow strong and broad and reach a great age. And in centuries to come, people will sit in its shade glorying in the profusion of wildflowers and birdsong and listening to the tree tell its stories about a passionate man with a taste for tadpoles and an infectious love of wild places.
PRECIOUS DISCOVERIES IN CHILE As part of an ambitious survey in the country’s south, researchers have rediscovered fern species – and recorded a rare rodent Researchers, including the Botanics’ Martin Gardner and partners, have been surveying a temperate rainforest in Vodudahue, southern Chile. Their work, to document all flowering plants, mosses, lichens, fungi, birds, mammals and insects across the 1,000hectare site, will inform a conservation strategy.
Among the species surveyed so far, researchers have rediscovered a fern previously thought extinct, and the extremely rare Wolffsohn’s viscacha, a rodent in the same family as the chinchilla. The fern will be named in a scientific journal later this year. “Most protected areas of the world are never in a position to undertake such detailed inventories,” says Gardner. “They protect biodiversity but don’t fully know the extent of the biodiversity they are protecting.” Once documented the site will be an important location for conservation, education and outreach. “We aim to use it to train staff from neighbouring national parks,” Gardner says. “Meanwhile, all the samples we collect will be entered into the Herbarium in Edinburgh.” Researchers have been documenting species across 1,000 hectares
A BEGINNER’S GUIDE TO
FOREST BATHING Scientists suggest the Japanese relaxation method shinrin-yoku can improve your health and mental wellbeing. Eva Clifford puts the theory to the test at Dawyck PHOTOGRAPHS BY KIRSTY ANDERSON
It’s a Tuesday afternoon and I am encased in the dripping wet branches of a hemlock tree. Behind me, spider webs shiver in hollows of rainsoaked bark and lichen clings to my hair. I am beginning to feel like one of Tolkien’s Ents but surprisingly I don’t feel completely ridiculous yet – I feel alive. I have come to Dawyck to experience the Japanese relaxation method of shinrin-yoku, or forest bathing as it is known in the West. Developed in Japan in the 1980s, shinrin-yoku emerged from a growing health crisis. With a notoriously demanding work culture, stress-related deaths were on the rise in Japan – as were diseases linked to air pollution for the majority urban population.
In coining a term for the activity, the Japanese government hoped to encourage citizens to visit and reap the healing benefits of the country’s forests. Rooted in ancient Shinto and Buddhist practices which regard forests as sacred spaces, shinrin-yoku offers a way to reconnect with nature in an increasingly urban world and helps foster a deeper appreciation for these wild places. While cultures globally have long recognised the importance of the natural world for human health, it is only recently that the concept has been backed by science. Research now shows that forest bathing – or simply spending time in nature – has a wealth of benefits, from reducing blood pressure to alleviating depression and increasing the body’s immunity. A study by researchers at National Taiwan University revealed
that a short forest bathing programme elicited a “significant decrease in pulse rate and systolic and diastolic blood pressure in middle-aged and elderly individuals”. Additionally, being outdoors in nature has been proven to enhance concentration and memory. “The prevalent scientific theory for why time spent in nature is good for our mental health is called attention restoration theory,” explains Dr Roger Hyam, biodiversity data systems developer at the Garden. “It has four components but the most important is called ‘soft fascination’.” While many tasks we carry out on a daily basis demand our full attention, soft fascination refers to a more reflective state where the mind is free to wander. “You are still focused but your focus becomes very broad, very soft,”
Opposite: Eva Clifford discovers a wealth of species to lose herself in while forest bathing for the first time at Dawyck. Above, left to right: catkins from a weeping birch (Betula pendula); Rhododendron rubiginosum; and Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris)
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WELLBEING
Eva discovers the allure of forest bathing among hemlock trees (Tsuga heterophylla). Research shows that simply spending time in the natural world can have health benefits, including reducing blood pressure and alleviating depression
continues Hyam. “Practically, you might notice that you have far greater peripheral vision and that you have true ‘surround sound’ hearing. There are many studies that show periods spent like this lead to improvements in cognitive abilities.” Indeed, writers and artists have for generations harnessed the power of nature to help them overcome problems and creative blocks. Ludwig van Beethoven composed one of his most well-known symphonies – the 6th, or Pastoral Symphony – during one of his daily strolls in the Viennese woods. What differentiates forest bathing from a regular walk, though, is that rather than being a passive activity, you are actively engaging with nature through all five senses, a technique closer to mindfulness than exercise. “Such deep connections with nature – what a Zen Buddhist might call kenshō (seeing our true nature) – are always available to us,” says Hyam, “because there are practical things we can do to enter fully into the present moment.”
‘Your focus becomes very broad, very soft. You might notice you have far greater peripheral vision and true “surround sound” hearing’
In practice, this isn’t always easy to do in today’s overstimulated, fast-paced world. However, in recent years there has been a growing recognition of nature’s importance to our wellbeing and forest bathing has become popular in many parts of the world beyond Japan, even integrated into therapeutic and rehabilitative programmes helping a range of people from rape survivors to soldiers with PTSD.
Beard lichen (Usnea subfloridana); conifer on orange lichen (Xanthoria parietina)
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WELLBEING
FIRST STEPS TO FOREST BATHING TURN OFF YOUR DEVICES
This will help you stay focused and present. Alternatively, activate your phone’s silent mode. FIND A GREEN AREA
Preferably a forest but it doesn’t have to be – it could be your local park or garden. For those who can’t get outside for whatever reason, infusing essential oils in the home or adding plants to your home can provide similar benefits. ENGAGE YOUR SENSES
Slow down and immerse yourself in the surroundings. You might start by slow walking, or you might prefer sitting somewhere that feels comfortable. Listen to the sounds and pay attention to the movements, shapes, textures – what can you see, hear, smell, feel? MAKE IT A REGULAR HABIT
The recommended two hours for a complete forest bathing experience is not always possible for everyone, but if you can make a regular habit of spending time in nature, you will soon feel the effects.
The monkey puzzle (Araucaria araucana), one of a genus containing 20 species worldwide
Standing at the base of a Giant Sierra redwood (Sequoiadendron giganteum) – a towering tree more than 50m high – Thomas Gifford, an arborist who has worked at Dawyck since 2009, demonstrates how the temptation to hug the redwood is impossible to resist. Although he was only recently made aware of the term ‘forest bathing’, he believes many of Dawyck’s visitors are drawn to the Garden precisely because of the same concept. “They come here because of the trees, because of the calmness … You do see people touching trees, hugging trees, sitting next to trees. I think it is exactly what you are talking about, except the majority of visitors aren’t using that term.” Of Dawyck’s 37,000 annual visitors, Gifford says he knows some of the regulars by name as they have been returning for years – clearly something keeps them coming back. As we follow the path through the Garden, we pass rhododendrons which fill the air with a rich cocoa scent. The role of trees in filtering pollutant gases from the atmosphere is well known, but studies carried out by Dr Qing Li, the world’s foremost expert in forest medicine, have shown how phytoncides – the essential oils which trees produce to defend themselves – can benefit human health too, by increasing the count of the body’s immune cells. Evergreens such as pines, cedars, spruces and conifers, are the
largest producers of phytoncides and the aromatic oils they release – such as d-limonene, alpha-pinene, beta-pinene and camphene – all have a soothing effect on humans, alongside myriad other benefits. While they are of critical importance worldwide, absorbing a third of global emissions per year, trees are being
‘They come to Dawyck because of the trees, because of the calmness … You see people touching trees, hugging trees, sitting next to trees’ destroyed at an alarming rate. Since 1990, the world has lost 420 million hectares or about a billion acres of forest, according to the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization – with deforestation a key culprit, as well as climate change and extreme weather. This is where organisations like the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh come in, working not only to protect and preserve these trees and plants for future generations but also to raise awareness of their importance. Home to Scotland’s finest tree collections, Dawyck contains some of Britain’s oldest and tallest trees, dating back to 1680, including many of RBGE.ORG.UK SUMMER 2022
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WELLBEING
CONNECT WITH NATURE AT OUR GARDENS
BENMORE
Giant Brazilian rhubarb (Gunnera manicata) shoots unfold into impressive leaves which combine to make a thick canopy; the bark of a paperbark maple (Acer griseum)
the Scottish botanist David Douglas’s original plant introductions, such as Douglas fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii) from the Pacific Northwest of America. “We’re trying to protect plants that are threatened, near extinction or extinct,” explains Gifford. Among Dawyck’s extensive Living Collection is Rhododendron adenosum which is threatened by extinction. The plant is being cultivated and protected through careful management with a view to possible reintroduction into the wild in future years. Another success story is the woolly willow (Salix lanata) – threatened in its native habitat by overgrazing, it was successfully reintroduced to the wild in an attempt to halt its decline. “It’s hugely important that organisations like ours are going out, exploring, finding, collecting, bringing back, doing the research, explaining it to the public, explaining it to industries, hopefully, as our mission statement says, for a better future.” Today, humanity is the most disconnected it has ever been from nature. According to the UN, the urban population hit 3.9 billion in 2014, compared to 746 million in 1950, and on average Europeans spend around 90 per cent of their time indoors – much of it on screens. It’s no surprise then that mental health issues such as anxiety and depression are on the rise. There is value in green spaces, as the pandemic showed. Forest bathing is one way to reconnect with nature – and to our physical bodies. “When we do forest bathing the forests have inherent value to us,” says 22
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Hyam. “We fall in love with Mother Earth again. In this sense forest bathing is practical conservation work as it provides the motivation for us to act. Ultimately it is the only way we will survive as a planet.” When I first mentioned to friends I was going to take a forest bath, you can
‘Absorbed in this light dance I realise that, for the first time in ages, my mind is at peace – in my body rather than in my head’ imagine the looks I got. I too had my misconceptions about what this practice was all about. But after spending five hours at Dawyck, I remember how powerful the nature connection can be. Stepping into a small clearing, I notice how much more alert I feel. The ‘surround sound’ of birdsong, twigs cracking, water rushing; the flash of a hare’s hind legs as it bounds over grass. I’m also able to identify several types of trees around me – when before they were simply trees. As the sun sets it seems to play tricks, deciding on a whim which tree to put in the spotlight, which patch of earth to illuminate. Absorbed in this light dance, I realise that, for the first time in ages, my mind is at peace – in my body rather than in my head.
Breathe in the fresh mountain air and absorb the dramatic scenery at Benmore, where you can stroll along the Younger Memorial Walk by the Giant Redwood Avenue. rbge.org.uk/benmore
LOGAN
Meander through groves of eucalyptus and palm trees. Then shade yourself beneath the giant rhubarb-like gunnera, which can grow up to 2.5m across, raised on stalks up to 3m high. rbge.org.uk/logan
EDINBURGH
A haven in the middle of the city, paths at the Botanics always lead you to memorable spots including the Woodland Garden, Copse and Chinese Hillside. rbge.org.uk/edinburgh
SCIENCE
WHY THE AMAZON RAINFOREST MATTERS
Domingos Cardoso; Haroldo Cavalcante; Charles Zartman
Studied by botanists for centuries, the renowned rainforest is one of the most diverse biomes on the planet. Here’s why it needs to be protected, and how taxonomy can help
The Amazon rainforest is at a critical threshold, according to research published in the March 2022 issue of the journal Nature Climate Change. Using satellite observations from the past three decades, along with computer models, researchers have shown the rainforest, known for its abundant biodiversity, is losing the ability to fully recover from drought and wildfires. The Amazon rainforest, say the paper’s authors Chris A Boulton, Timothy M Lenton and Niklas Boers, is at risk of irreversible dieback, “with profound implications for biodiversity, carbon storage and climate change at a global scale”. The news is another blow to the campaign to protect the forest. A record number of trees have been felled in the Amazon since COP26, which was attended by Nemonte Nenquimo (the female leader of the indigenous Waorani people from the Amazon rainforest) and where world leaders vowed to end deforestation by 2030. In the first three months of 2022 deforestation was up 64 per cent from last year.
The Amazon plant checklist
The Amazon rainforest is one of the most biodiverse areas on Earth, home to several million species of animal and plant life. In 2017 research staff at the Garden collaborated on the first ever verified checklist of plant diversity in the Amazon. Working with taxonomists from 32 research institutes in Amazonian countries, Europe and USA, the researchers catalogued 14,003 species of seed plants, 6,727 of which are trees. The 24
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Clockwise from above: Monopteryx angustifolia, a rare find; Domingos Cardoso holding an inflorescence of Parkia discolor; and standing beside a giant Vatairea fusca tree
FACT CHECK One of the most important biomes on Earth, the health of the Amazon rainforest has huge global significance
2.3m The Amazon is the world’s largest tropical rainforest, spanning 2.3 million square miles
‘To know if the Amazon rainforest is at a tipping point we first need to know the names of species – we need taxonomy’ checklist, which took a year to write, drawing on decades of research, is a vital tool in the fight against climate change. It is an important summation of our current knowledge and will be the basis of climate-change research for years to come. “To arrive at important conclusions, to know if the Amazon rainforest is at a tipping point we first need to know the names of species – we need taxonomy,” says Dr Domingos Cardoso, assistant professor at Federal University of Bahia, Brazil, and co-author of the checklist. “Plant identity matters. The rainforest is under threat, but how many trees are we going to lose? How many species? Now we can answer these questions.” To illustrate his point, Dr Cardoso sketches a grimly apt analogy: “If you’re in a building with the right protocol, you need to sign in and out. If you don’t have a list of who’s in the building, then how do you know who to look for if the place is on fire? You don’t want to waste your time looking for Domingos if Domingos isn’t there.” Before collaborators drew up the Amazon checklist, earlier datasets estimated that the lowland rainforest contained up to 50,000 plant species –
Deforestation is the rainforest’s biggest threat, as areas are cleared to make way for cattle farming
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The forest comprises 40% of Brazil’s total area
Of the 14,003 catalogued plant species in the Amazon rainforest, 6,727 are trees
It spans eight countries, including Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia and Venezuela
WHAT OUR COLLECTION CAN TELL US The traditional way to find new species is through botanic exploration. Here’s how our scientists find and describe new plants
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Field research
Herbarium
One way to describe a new species is to look for plants of interest in a poorly explored region. Scientists and horticulturists take a sample, with as much of the plant as possible (seeds, flowers, roots, leaves and fruit), noting where and when it was found. The ‘voucher specimen’ is then dried for future scientific study.
While some plants returned from the field are cultivated in our living collection, dried samples are added to the Herbarium. It includes around three million specimens, representing half to two thirds of the world’s flora and is an essential resource when determining biodiversity in a region.
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Identification
DNA profiling
Identifying a plant is a complicated process involving a huge amount of knowledge and research. A scientist will cross-reference several resources, including photographs, illustrations, other specimens in the Herbarium and published plant descriptions. If the plant is a new one, the scientist will submit their description for publication.
To supplement the plant description, a scientist may sequence a plant’s DNA, comparing the genetic code with other similar plants. We have helped develop large-scale reference databases of verified DNA sequences and these can be used as a resource for species discovery and plant identification.
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SCIENCE
Dr Domingos Cardoso and his team working in the field researching the papilionoid legume Monopteryx uaucu
Domingos Cardoso; Robert Jones; Fiona Inches
‘Whatever happens to the Amazon rainforest will affect the whole continent and the world’ more than three times the figure verified in the 2017 Amazon checklist. “They said that the Amazon has 16,000 tree species,” explains Dr Tiina Sarkinen, South American biodiversity researcher for the Garden. “We quickly understood they were finding synonyms – multiple names for the same tree – and counting species several times over. So, we published something as a response. That’s how the Amazon checklist came about.” As well as synonyms, previous estimates were found to include species from South American regions beyond the lowland rainforests. One example is a plant that occurs at 4,000 metres elevation, at the top of the Andes. Another, Cardoso points out, is endemic to his native soil in the desert-like climate of the Caatinga region. Most astonishing of all, Sarkinen found that the earlier dataset included species from abroad. “They were counting non-native, cultivated species,”
S HELP U HE T SAVE OREST RAINF 26
3 AMAZON SPECIES Rainforest natives from our vast living collection
she says. “So, there were African eggplants, and yes, people cultivate them everywhere, but that doesn’t mean they grow in the Amazon … It’s the equivalent of saying there are elephants in the Amazon. They were claiming there were plants in the Amazon that anyone who knows anything about plants would know was rubbish.”
What’s at stake
“It’s such a large continuous area, so it’s fair to say that whatever happens to the Amazon rainforest will affect the whole continent and the world,” says Sarkinen. Covering an area of 2.3 million square miles, the Amazon rainforest is a vital carbon sink, processing billions of tons of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere (although forest fires have undermined this process), much of which is produced by human activity such as industry. The vast amount of photosynthesis taking place across the forest not only contributes to the lowering of carbon in the air, but also helps keep the atmosphere cool – a natural defence against global warming. The Amazon is also a vital source of water for much of the continent. “The effect those forests have on the local and regional climates is huge,” says Sarkinen. “If we see a significant dieback, it’s going to change what they can grow as farmers; it’s going to be unpredictable; affect rainfall patterns. It’s the human aspect we need to worry about.” “Without the Amazon I think we’d be in huge trouble,” adds Cardoso. “Without the Amazon, there would be no agriculture in Southern Brazil – nothing.”
The Amazon’s 14,000 plant species are under threat from deforestation. Support our vital research to save these plants. Visit rbge.org.uk/support-us/save-the-amazon
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1 Passiflora alata First described by English botanist William Curtis, who published an 18th-century magazine focusing on exotic plants, Passiflora alata is an evergreen climber with a fragrant flower and an edible passion fruit. The plant is used as a medicine in South America.
2 Psammisia amazonica This is a flowering shrub of the family Ericaceae, which also includes blueberry and cranberry, and is found in Ecuador and Peru. It is epiphytic, meaning it grows on other plants, such as trees.
3 Theobroma cacao This small perennial tree is best known for producing cocoa beans, the main ingredient of chocolate. The plant has been used by Amazonian locals for thousands of years. Today it is widely cultivated in lowland tropical areas, and particularly West Africa.
40%
Alex Wilson
of plant species are estimated to be threatened with extinction
HELP US CONSERVE OUR GREEN PLANET BY DONATING TODAY SCAN HERE TO DONATE ONLINE
Human and environmental health are intrinsically linked, and increasingly urgent action is needed to conserve our green planet in the face of accelerating environmental crisis. The Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh is working in 40 countries around the world to sustain species, habitats and livelihoods. Please consider donating today to support our vital conservation and research work and help us protect our natural world for generations to come. To donate online, please visit rbge.org.uk/donate RBGE.ORG.UK SUMMER 2022
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ANATOMY OF A PLANT
The leaf of life The leaves of the humble tea plant are a household product used the world over. As a crop, tea defined global trade, colonialism and conflict, and continues to be one of the planet’s biggest commodities
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Camellia sinensis (Hindi: chai, ) is an evergreen species of flowering plant in the family Theaceae. Native to China the smaller-leaved variant is distinct from the larger-leaved C. sinensis var. assamica that is native to north-east India.
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Camellia sinensis. Dapuri Collection, RBGE
The leaves of Camellia sinensis are cultivated to make some of the world’s most popular teas, including green tea and black tea. The chemical compound caffeine, responsible for tea’s stimulant effect, is also a natural pesticide that can kill insects.
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Although the plant is cultivated largely in tropical and subtropical regions, and enjoys a rich and moist location, Camellia sinensis is grown as far north as the Scottish Highlands.
This watercolour was copied from a plate in the Botanical Magazine between 1847 and 1850 by a Portuguese-Indian artist for the Scottish East India Company surgeon Alexander Gibson 28
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The East India Company – one of the most powerful and notorious forces in British colonialism – had a monopoly on the tea trade until 1833, when conflict with China forced it to find a new source. The company established teagrowing in India, where it became a key product for imperialist Britain, and is still a major industry today. The Chinese form of the plant was smuggled to the East India Company’s plantations by Robert Fortune, who had trained at the Garden.
TEA MASTERCLASS Join Monica Griesbaum, the president of the European Tea Growers Association, for an immersive five-day herbology experience dedicated to the amazingly rich and aromatic world of fine teas. Learn about the beautiful evergreen plant and sample a selection of teas from around the globe. 25–29 July 2022, £600 rbge.org.uk/teamasterclass