Plant artefacts

Discover Kew's historic plant artefact collection, begun in 1847 by Sir William Hooker. This fascinating global collection includes around 85,000 artefacts including herbal medicines, food and fibres. The collection illustrates the extent of human use of plants around the world, and the huge variety of objects range from paper to weapons and clothing to medicines.

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Economic Botany blog

Putting the Economic Botany Collection online

by: Mark Nesbitt, Economic Botany blog
16 May 2012
Regular readers will have noticed a long pause since my last blog post. That's because we've been working hard on getting the Economic Botany Collection online.

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An ethnobotanical new year

by: Mark Nesbitt, Economic Botany blog
25 Oct 2011
This autumn Kew welcomed the 14th intake of students into the joint University of Kent/Kew MSc in Ethnobotany. In a packed two days the students were introduced to Kew's collections, had an intensive day of plant-collecting, and heard this year's Distinguished Ethnobotanist lecture.

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Putting the Economic Botany Collection online

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A Journey to the 'Land of Many Waters'

by: Sara Albuquerque, Economic Botany blog
15 Jun 2011
Sara Albuquerque updates us on her journey to Guyana, in the footsteps of Sir Everard im Thurm.

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Artefact of the month

This hat was collected for Kew by Richard Spruce in the 1890s. These practical hats are both flexible and durable. It was made in the Pueblo de Monagas region of the Amazonas from the leaves of either the bera or arrow grass. The rough cuticle is scraped off the leaves which are then cut into strips and woven.