Please note:

The Go Wild Festival ran at Kew and Wakehurst place for the summer of 2003. As such many of the festival features can no longer be seen in the gardens, but this website has been kept to give visitors access to wealth of information developed to support the festival.

Don't forget to check out the latest events in the gardens. Find out more......

What is Biodiversity?

Wild Fact 2: Conservationists believe that invasive alien species are second only to habitat destruction as a cause of species extinction and environmental decline around the world.

Wild Science: Invasive alien species >>>

Wild Fact 5: While Britain and Ireland are home to less than 1% of the world's known vascular plant species, 7% ( approx 900 ) of described mosses and liverworts and 10% of recorded lichen species are found here.

Wild Science: What is a native species? >>>

Wild Fact 18: Around 50% of the world's terrestrial biodiversity is thought to be found at the canopy level of woodlands and forests (source: Global Canopy Programme).

Festival Features: Treetop Walkway >>>

External link: Global Canopy Programme >>>

Wild Fact 19: Less than 4% of the native vascular plant species of the United Kingdom are endemic to this country (found nowhere else) (source: Flora for Fauna). Over 80% of the vascular plant species found in Madagascar are endemic to that large island.

Wild Science: What is a native species? >>>

External link: Flora for Fauna >>>

Wild Fact 20: Nine species of carnivorous plant are native to the United Kingdom, from the genera Drosera (Sundews), Pinguicula (Butterworts) and Utricularia (Bladderworts). One of these species, Pinguicula alpina, has not been seen since before 1919 and is probably now nationally extinct (source: New Atlas of the British and Irish Flora, 2002)

Wild Science: What is a native species? >>>

External link: New Atlas of the British and Irish Flora >>>

Wild Fact 21: Only 5% of plant species recorded from a 700,000 year old pollen fossil deposit at Cromer in Norfolk are no longer natives of the British Isles. Among these ex-natives is the water fern, Azolla filiculoides, now considered an invasive alien species. (The History of British Vegetation, W. Pennington, 1974, p.14)

Wild Science: What is a native species? >>>

Wild Science: Invasive alien plants >>>

Wild Fact 22: It is estimated that 15% of threatened plant species world-wide are under threat from competitive non-native species that have colonised their habitat. Of the 2951 vascular plant species growing in the wild in the British Isles and Ireland, 1551 have been introduced by humans (source: New Atlas of the British & Irish Flora, 2002).

Wild Science: What is a native species? >>>

External link: New Atlas of the British and Irish Flora >>>

Wild Fact 24: Great Britain and Ireland are home to 45 endemic plant species (source: Flora for Fauna) but another 200 are to be found throughout the 16 UK Overseas Territories, with the largest number (46) occurring on the island of St. Helena. (source: UK Overseas Territories Conservation Forum)

Wild Science: What is a native species? >>>

External link: Flora for Fauna >>>

Wild Fact 34: Approximately 26% of the United Kingdom's hedgerows are considered to be species-rich. Hawthorn (Crataegus monogyna) is the most common hedgerow species found in 90% of the hedgerows surveyed. Other common hedgerow species are Blackthorn (Prunus spinosa), Elder (Sambucus nigra) and Dog Rose (Rosa canina). (source: Countryside Survey 2002 News, Issue 7)

Wild Science: What is a native species? >>>

Wild Fact 35: Root and vegetable crops tend to support more diverse field margins than cereal crops. Among the most frequent plants from field margins are cleavers (Galium aparine), creeping thistle (Cirsium arvense), field bindweed (Convulvulus arvense) and chickweed (Stellaria media). (source: Results from MAFF-funded work in the CS2000 Programme, Barr et al.)

Wild Science: What is a biodiversity? >>>

Festival Features: Self Raising Flowers >>>

Wild Fact 36: There has been an improvement in the biodiversity and condition in freshwater habitats of the UK between 1990 and 1998. Twenty five percent of sites have moved to an improved grade over this period, whilst only two percent have declined in quality. (Countryside Survey 2000: Module 2 Freshwater studies Technical Report)

Wild Science: What is a biodiversity? >>>

Wild Fact 38: 77% of UK land is used for agriculture, 10% for forestry and 10% for urban land use. (source: Evans, D. (1997) A History of Nature Conservation in Britain)

Festival Features: Self Raising Flowers >>>

Wild Fact 40: Bennett's Wallabies (Macropus rufogriseus) have survived in naturalised populations in the United Kingdom since the 1940s. Wild populations are known to exist in Scotland and Derbyshire. The first animals will have escaped from private collections. (source: The Mammal Society)

Festival Features: A Wild Community >>>

Wild Fact 41: Male stag beetles (Lucanus cervus) can reach up to 8cm in length. The UK population has been declining since the 1940s, but the species is relatively frequent in London. The male beetle's large jaws are for fighting competitors, not prey. The species is not carnivorous.

Festival Features: Out of the Wood >>>

Wild Fact 42: There are 60 wild and naturalised mammal species in the UK and an estimated 285 million individual mammals. Only the Field Vole (Microtus agrestus), at approximately 75 million breeding adults can compare with the number of humans (58 million). In terms of biomass (number of individuals x average mass), wild animals amount to approximately 2% of the UK mammal total, with 55% represented by domestic stock and the remaining 43% by humans! (source: The Mammal Society)

Festival Features: Carbon Light Life >>>

Wild Fact 43: The Green Man is also known as 'The Old Man of the Woods', 'Jack in the Green' or 'Green George'. In Exeter Cathedral, images of the Green Man outnumber those of Christ by five to one! (source: A Little Book of the Green Man, Mike Harding, 1998)

Festival Features: Wild Wood Exhibition >>>

Wild Fact 46: The Geology of the UK reflects the history of our land over hundreds of millions of years. Fossils within these rocks provide an insight into the history of biodiversity over this time. The world's oldest crustacean fossil (crustaceans are the group of animals which contain lobsters and woodlice) has been found in Shropshire, England. It is 511 million years old. (source: British Geological Society)

Festival Features: Emily Young Sculptures >>>

What is biodiversity?
What is a native plant?
Links