Sibbaldia - the Journal of Botanic Garden Horticulture (Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh Journals)
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Flowering curves and the summer-gap mystery
Get PDFResults from year-round weekly monitoring of 93 taxa (179 accessions) at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (RBGE) are presented in the form of flowering curves. These are provisionally grouped into classes, and hypotheses are suggested to explain the different patterns. Attention is drawn to a prominent ‘summer gap’ in flowering in some species, and possible explanations for the gap are discussed
“To Get Those Plants ... Likely to Prove Interesting at Edinburgh": Robert Brown of Perth and James McNab’s North American Tour of 1834
Get PDFRobert Brown and James McNab are introduced and the purposes of their journey in 1834 are explained. Extracts from the diaries written by McNab which might be of particular interest to horticulturists are reproduced. The details of the itinerary and a seed list of species collected are also included as appendices
A New Caledonian Glasshouse in Paris: Challenges and Opportunities
Get PDFThis chapter discusses the renovation of the public glasshouses (Les Grandes Serres) at the Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle, Paris (MNHN) and particularly the creation of a glasshouse presenting the rich and unique flora of New Caledonia, a French overseas territory in the Pacific Ocean. The displays demonstrate past and current scientific studies carried out by MNHN researchers in all fields of natural history. Current concerns over the degradation of the biodiversity of the region have led to the decision taken by the Department of Botanical and Zoological Gardens to display this ecosystem. Five of the most threatened or important ecosystems of the archipelago have been recreated in the glasshouses and have full disabled access. The reopening of Les Grandes Serres was a landmark for the 2010 International Year of Biodiversity at MNHN
Propagation of Cycad Collections from Seed: Applied Reproductive Biology for Conservation
Get PDFPropagation of cycads from seed can aid their conservation as it helps reduce the demand for wildcollected plants. Seed-produced plants can be used for reintroduction programmes if the parent plants are from known provenance and care is taken to avoid hybridisation. This paper discusses the techniques required for successful seed propagation of cycads, including pollen collection, storage, viability testing, manual pollination, seed collection, storage and germination
Amborella trichopoda: Cultivation of the most ancestral angiosperm in botanic gardens
Get PDFAmborella trichopoda Baill., the most ancestral angiosperm, has been successfully cultivated in the Botanic Gardens of the University of Bonn in Germany (BG Bonn) for more than a decade. The distribution of this plant – limited to the South Pacific island of New Caledonia – and its cultivation has so far only been achieved in a few botanic gardens. This paper provides details about the cultivation and propagation of Amborella, and information on its cultivation in botanic gardens around the world. The authors propose that the collections of this plant in botanic gardens could be used to establish ex situ conservation collections
The Balanced Scorecard Combined with an Alternative Costing System: An Effective Contribution to Governance
Get PDFThis project investigated whether a strategy framework such as the Balanced Scorecard (BSC), linked to a Performance Management System (PMS), would, compared to a more standard model of strategic planning, improve focus and research output by botanic gardens worldwide. The focus of the project shifted as the opportunity arose to develop an objective costing system linked to the related PMS, which allowed the researchers to posit that the BSC framework could provide a more effective contribution to governance. The research output was based on an in-depth case study at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh employing documentary analysis and innovative action research techniques adopting a constructive approach. This paper has been adapted for Sibbaldia having previously been published by the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) Research Project R220 (Macnab et al., 2010)
A History of Hawaiian Plant Propagation
Get PDFThe National Tropical Botanical Garden (NTBG) has been a leader in the propagation and cultivation of rare native Hawaiian plants for several decades. The organisation’s work in rare plant conservation started primarily with field research and has evolved into a large-scale nursery operation. The NTBG now produces thousands of plants a year for ex situ conservation, garden collections and restoration projects. Here a number of Hawaiian species are reviewed, and appropriate propagation and cultural methods for each are discussed
Vertical plant production as a public exhibit at Paignton Zoo
Get PDFPaignton Zoo has undertaken a novel project together with a multinational plant technology group to build Europe’s first vertical growing facility. The project represents the first zoo-based sustainable growing laboratory. It is an example of how zoos and botanic gardens can demonstrate sustainability to their visitors, through reducing their own impacts on the environment and by using plant-based solutions to offset the impact of anthropogenic global change on biodiversity. Urban agriculture and High Density Vertical Growing technology should be seen as a valuable element that can help to achieve the Millennium Development Goals, most specifically goal number one: to end poverty and hunger, and goal number seven: to ensure environmental sustainability by taking pressure off habitats to service unsustainable cities through agricultural domestication or otherwise unsustainable land use
Lessons from Phenology: an Interim Report
Get PDFTwenty provisional multiple-regression models based on a small data set are presented to account for the timing of first-flower date and other phenological events. Biological mechanisms are suggested to explain the pattern of temperature-dependent developmental stages. The implications for how plants and vegetation are likely to react to climate change are discussed, and attention is drawn to the importance of within-taxon variation in phenological behaviour