Public Education

KEW LECTURES

LECTURES AT KEW

The Kew lectures will take place in the Jodrell Lecture Theatre accessed via Jodrell Gate on Kew Road. Tickets can be purchased from our office in advance or will be available to buy at the door on the day (unless sold out).

Heartbeats of the Earth
A Journey through Art, Science and Nature

Chris Drury

Tuesday 19 February 7pm
Venue: Kew

Chris Drury is one of a handful of British land artists, including Richard Long, David Nash and Andy Goldsworthy, whose work has an international reputation. He has worked on landscape projects all over the world and has exhibited widely. Last year he spent two months in Antarctica with the British Antarctic Survey, and the resulting work can be seen at Beaux Arts in London in April. Chris will talk about his work, his walks, people and landscapes and about the extraordinary experience of working deep on the Antarctic ice sheets in the company of a small group of scientists.
www.chrisdrury.co.uk

All tickets: £5

This lecture has been generously supported by the Dr.H.Shawdon Charitable Trust

The Brother Gardeners:
Botany, Empire and the Birth of an Obsession

Andrea Wulf

Tuesday 22 April 7pm
Venue: Kew

In this lecture we hear the story of how Britain became a nation of gardeners - a story of a horticultural and botanical revolution in the eighteenth century which laid the foundations of the English garden today and which was closely linked to the botanic garden at Kew.

The Brother Gardeners is a group biography of explorers, botanists, collectors, and plant dealers: Philip Miller the head gardener of the Chelsea Physic Garden and the author of the Gardeners Dictionary, the most important horticultural publication of all times; the collector and merchant Peter Collinson who together with the American farmer John Bartram ‘transplanted’America to England; Carl Linnaeus, the Swedish botanist who classified the natural world and invented a standardized botanical nomenclature, popularising botany as a genteel pastime for the middle-classes; Daniel Solander who ignored his teacher Linnaeus and joined the dashingly handsome Joseph Banks on Captain Cook’s Endeavour on the greatest voyage of discovery of modern times; and Banks himself, who exchanged his life as a rich gentlemen for that of an explorer, becoming in turn one of the most influential men in Georgian England.

Friends, rivals, enemies, their correspondence, collaborations and squabbles make for a riveting human story set against the backdrop of the emerging British empire. As botany and horticulture became a science, the garden became the Eden for everyman.

Andrea Wulf is a writer and garden historian. She is the author of The Brother Gardeners. Botany, Empire and the Birth of an Obsession and the co-author This Other Eden: Seven Great Gardens and 300 Years of English History. She writes for The Guardian, the Times Literary Supplement and The Garden.

All tickets: £5

This lecture has been generously supported by the Dr. H.Shawdon Charitable Trust

Hidden Trees of Britain

Archie Miles

Thursday 5 June 7pm
Venue: Kew

Archie Miles’ latest book, ‘Hidden Trees of Britain’ is the culmination of a personal odyssey to find the strangest, rarest, largest and most obscure trees and treescapes of Britain. In this lecture we’ll hear the multitude of wonderful stories associated with these trees, also their historical, cultural and botanical significance in the nation’s natural heritage.

Archie Miles has been a professional photographer for more than thirty years, and a writer for about eighteen years, he has worked in the industrial, tourism and environmental sectors, but always had an abiding passion for landscape and natural history. A specialisation over the last fifteen years has seen him carving a distinctive niche in the world of trees, and he works on a regular basis with both the Tree Council and the Woodland Trust. He has travelled the length and breadth of the British Isles to photograph many of the country’s greatest and rarest trees as well as a huge diversity of woodland types. He runs a successful picture library and a postcard publishing business. The picture library now contains one of the most comprehensive collections of British tree photographs in the country – over 300,000 images!
His best-selling book, Silva – The Tree in Britain (Ebury Press – 1999), has sold in excess of 20,000 copies. 2002 saw the publication of The Malvern Hills and Westward (Beacon Hill House) – a personal photo essay and collection of poetry. In 2004 he was principal photographer and art director for The Heritage Trees of Britain and Northern Ireland (Constable) and in 2006 undertook the same roles for Heritage Trees of Scotland (Forestry Commission). In 2006 he also wrote and photographed the tie-in book for a popular new BBC2 series – The Trees that made Britain.

www.archiemiles.co.uk

All tickets £5

This lecture has been generously supported by the Dr. H. Shawdon Charitable Trust

Lectures at Wakehurst Place

The Wakehurst Place lectures take place in the Millennium Seed Bank Seminar Room. Tickets can be purchased from our office in advance or will be available to buy on the door on the day (unless sold out).

Yew – A History

Fred Hageneder

Tuesday 18 March 2pm
Venue: Wakehurst Place

An introduction into the extraordinary botany and ecology of Taxus baccata L. and the controversy regarding its legendary longevity. This diverse talk also provides insights into the rich cultural history of the genus: from Stone Age weapons and medieval longbows to modern cancer treatment, from ancient religion to Shinto and Buddhist shrines and British churchyards. A reflection on our natural and cultural heritage.
Yew – A History (Sutton, Stroud 2007) is Fred Hageneder’s fifth book in ethnobotany. He is a founding member of the Ancient Yew Group (AYG, www.ancient-yew.org) and chairman of the registered charity Friends of the Trees.

All tickets: £5

This lecture has been generously supported by the Dr. H. Shawdon Charitable Trust

Dragonflies

Tuesday 8 July 2pm

Philip Corbet and Stephen Brooks
Venue: Wakehurst Place

Dragonflies (insects of the order Odonata) are among the planet’s most ancient insects and were probably the first insects to fly. Giant dragonflies flourished during the Carboniferous period, some 300 million years ago, when they were about seven times larger than their present-day descendants. Dragonflies are active predators, as larvae and as adults. The adults are pre-eminent among other animals in their powers of flight and sight. Their aerial supremacy is equalled only by a few of the most agile raptors among birds, and never fails to thrill the human observer.

In this lecture some of the specialised features of dragonfly behaviour and ecology will be described.
The natural history of the 54 species recorded from the British Isles, will be reviewed including the measures that will be needed for their conservation, and the changes that are already occurring in response to climate change.

For Philip Corbet dragonflies have been a source of absorbing interest and admiration since his undergraduate days. He co-authored the first New Naturalist book on dragonflies in 1960 and since then has authored or co-authored four more books on dragonflies, including the latest New Naturalist Dragonflies published this year.

He presently holds the position of Honorary Professor at the University of Edinburgh.
Stephen Brooks has been inspired by dragonflies since an early age. Since 1979 he has worked at The Natural History Museum, London, researching dragonflies, lacewings and chironomid midges, especially in their application as indicators of environmental change. He has written many articles and four books of dragonflies.

All tickets: £5

This lecture has been generously supported by the Dr. H.Shawdon Charitable Trust

Millennium Seed Bank Lecture Series

Tools used by Modern Plant Collectors

Tuesday 6 May 7pm

Venue: Wakehurst Place

The Millennium Seed Bank Project (MSBP) targets the most rare, threatened and useful plants for seed collection and storage. Each year, MSBP seed collecting teams throughout the world carry out expeditions to the remotest parts of the planet. Compared to our plant hunting predecessors, we have an impressive range of methodologies and tools to help us find the rarest plant species out there.

For one thing, we have the records of those who first found these plants. Such records might just be the name of a local chiefdom covering thousands of square miles or they can be detailed locality information that takes us to within a few yards of the plant.

Before we go into the field and invest in expensive expeditions we use Geographical Information Systems (GIS) to plot our routes using the most detailed maps we can find. In addition, we use satellite imagery to check intactness of habitats and thus estimate the chances of the plant still being there.

Once in the field, we use Collection Guides comprising all the locality information we have been able to gather as well as images of the target plants. Geographical Positioning Systems (satnavs) help us to find the areas we are looking for. We use whatever form of transport that will get us there, from customised 4x4 vehicles to our own two feet.

This lecture will explain the use of these methodologies and tools, and give examples of the re-discovery of some of the world’s rarest plants, as well as some that remain lost.

Dr Paul Smith is a specialist in ecology and plant diversity in southern, central and eastern Africa. He has extensive experience in ecological surveying, botanical inventory, vegetation mapping and monitoring, including the use of Geographical Information Systems and remote sensing techniques. He has also worked in park planning and ecotourism in Zambia’s Luangwa valley. Paul holds both a BSc and a PhD from the University of Kent

In 2000 Paul was appointed Southern Africa and Madagascar co-ordinator for Kew’s Millennium Seed Bank Project – based at Wakehurst Place in West Sussex. In that role he developed and co-ordinated the Project’s activities in Botswana, Malawi, Madagascar, Namibia and South Africa.

In August 2005, Paul became the leader of the £80 Millennium Seed Bank Project which is aiming to save the world’s most endangered plant species from extinction.

All tickets: £10 to include a glass of wine (or see special ticket offer for series)

This lecture has been generously supported by the Dr. H.Shawdon Charitable Trust

The International Programme of the Millennium Seed Bank Project

Tuesday 3 June 7pm
Venue: Wakehurst Place

The MSB project works with more than fifty organisations around the world to find, collect and bank seeds on behalf of future generations. Kew has forged partnerships with a wide range of organisations including government departments, universities, seed banks and NGOs, and has provided technical leadership and support to ensure that seed is collected and handled to the highest international standards. This lecture will illustrate the diversity of partnerships within the MSB international programme and give some case examples from the Americas on how the partnerships actually work in practice.
Michael Way is an ecologist who co-ordinates the Americas activities of the Millennium Seed Bank Project. He has extensive experience of the science and practice of seed collecting and conservation and has carried out dozens of seed collecting expeditions since joining Kew in 1993.

Before joining Kew he worked with UK landowners and public agencies on habitat protection, designation and management on behalf of English Nature, one of the UK's national conservation agencies. He is now responsible for RBG Kew's input into seed conservation projects in Chile, Mexico, and the USA, where he takes a particular interest in integrated conservation strategies and capacity building. Michael is part of the team preparing for the ambitious next phase of the MSB Project.

All tickets: £5 (or see special ticket offer for series)

This lecture has been generously supported by the Dr. H.Shawdon Charitable Trust

Keeping Seeds Alive: The Technology of Seed Banking

Tuesday 1 July 7pm
Venue: Wakehurst Place

Approximately, 90% of the flowering plants on earth have evolved seeds that can withstand drying. In nature this enables seeds to remain alive, sometimes for many years, until conditions are favourable for germination and plant growth. Seed conservationists merely exploit this natural trait and by carefully drying and then freezing seeds we can keep them alive for many years.

The science and technology of seed banking was first worked out for crop species which are generally easy to store and easy to germinate. Although the seeds of wild plants are more difficult, Kew has been successfully storing them for future generations for nearly 40 years and the Millennium Seed Bank is the world’s foremost facility for their long-term conservation. Kew has achieved this because of its investment in seed science and technology.

We can now better predict how long seeds of different species will survive in the seed bank and we have unlocked some of the dormancy mechanisms that protect seeds from germinating at the wrong time in nature. This is vital so that we can germinate seeds and turn them into healthy plants when they are needed in the future. This lecture will explain the science and technology of seed banking and demonstrate how you can replicate this in your own homes to save seeds of your favourite plants.

Dr Robin Probert is Head of Technology and Training at the Millennium Seed Bank. Robin started as an undergraduate student in 1974 when Kew’s seed physiology unit and fledgling seed bank had only just moved from Kew to Wakehurst Place. He became a full time member of staff in 1976 and is now the seed bank’s longest serving member of staff. Robin is a member of the Seed Conservation Department’s senior management team. He is on the editorial board of the journal Seed Science Research and is a trustee of the International Society for Seed Science.

All tickets: £5 (or see special ticket offer for series)

This lecture has been generously supported by the Dr. H.Shawdon Charitable Trust

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