An evening of talks at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (RGBE) next month will cover everything from ‘adhesive for sticking lichens on trees to adventures in the land of the crested macaque’.
Scientists Sally Eaton, Hannah Atkins and Sadie Barber are among those to appear, and will recount ups and downpours in the rainforests of Scotland’s west coast and Sulawesi. They’ll be looking at RBGE’s research and conservation projects, and its unique working relationship between Science and Horticulture.
Sally Eaton [pictured above] leads the field in lichen conservation, and is currently experimenting in translocation: ‘gluing lichens to trees and monitoring their growth to discover if this is a viable way to extend the range of rare species that are very slow to colonise new sites’.
Tropical botanist Hannah Atkins and horticulturist Sadie Barber recently travelled to Sulawesi in Indonesia and will explain the importance of their two disciplines working together. Focusing on the Gesneriaceae family, they’ll explain how fieldwork often results in finding species that are new to science.
The event starts at 6pm on 15 March. Tickets are free but must be booked in advance here.
African violet image from Wikipedia, creative commons.
