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Last Ent set to repopulate Glen Affric
Sometimes individual trees attain what might be called celebrity status. They become widely known for some particular quality or association. This often relates to historical figures and events that...
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A tale of two elms
A new chapter in the 800 year relationship between the people of the Highland village of Beauly and a remarkable wych elm began on Monday 29 April 2024 with the planting of two young elms. In January...
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The elm hunters
Inchnadamph is on the shore of Loch Assynt, at the point where the burn known as the Traligill enters the loch. The hamlet consists of only a few houses and a small kirk surrounded by high hills and...
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In the firing line
Plants taking pot shots at passers by is obviously a fanciful idea. Nevertheless, there is a plant, known as the purple toothwort (Lathraea clandestina), that could be described as a botanical...
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Cow-wheat conundrum
One of the plants in the set of ten that make up the Scottish Plant Recovery project – small cow-wheat (Melampyrum sylvaticum) – is a particular enigma due to its poorly understood interactions with...
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Cow-wheat curiosity: pollination
There’s nothing quite like a mystery for building a sense of curiosity. As part of my preparation for the Scottish Plant Recovery project fieldtrip to Norway in early August I was intrigued by the...
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Norwegian niches: oblong woodsia
Niche is a word that has multiple meanings. Someone might have ‘found their niche’ if they have a particularly suitable job, for example. In ecology the word is a jargon term for all the environmental...
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Uber ants
As part of our work on Scottish Plant Recovery we have been bulking up the seed of small cow-wheat (Melampyrum sylvaticum) in readiness for translocation back to the wild. The aim of this work is to...
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Interpreting fungi in the Garden
The Garden’s Visitor Welcome Team is busy deploying a new set of interpretation panels to highlight the seasonal interest that fungi bring to the Garden. The normally overlooked fungi tend to undergo...
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No more sow-thistle blues
During summer 2024 a small group of staff from the Garden’s Scottish Plant Recovery team, NatureScot and National Trust for Scotland achieved something which would have been unimaginable ten years...
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Scottish Plant Recovery updates
Monthly updates on the progress being made to restore the fortunes of some Scotland’s most threatened plants are now available online. The updates, produced by the Garden’s Scottish Plant Recovery...
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Translocating resilience
Assisting the migration of plants is something that has already been carried out in a limited way to help them respond to climate change. The concern is that some plants are either unable to migrate...
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Elm in it’s place
A story that is told in pictures alone is somehow very satisfying. Nobody needs to be a wordsmith to get the message across. When Chris Puddephatt sent me his latest images of Assynt’s elms I saw a...
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