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......

Managing Nature

Wild Fact 3: Managed woodlands can supply a vast range of products that we use every day -, furniture, fencing, baskets, brooms, tools and fuel. Historically, woodlands have played a vital role in the culture of our country.

Wild Science: Woodland skills >>> 

Wild Fact 4: Many woodlands were once coppiced for the making of charcoal. Trees such as Hazel (Corylus avellana), Sweet Chestnut (Castanea sativa), Oak (Quercus robur), Alder (Alnus glutinosa), Beech (Fagus sylvatica), Birch (Betula) and Willow (Salix) can all be coppiced. Woodlands like these suppo wide variety of wildflowers and wildlife.

Wild Science: Charcoal production >>>

Wild Fact 31: Many of the plants growing wild in the UK provide the raw materials for commercial products. Elderflowers (Sambucus nigra) are picked for the production of cordial, marsh samphire (Salicornia spp.) for eating as delicacy in north Norfolk and alder (Alnus glutinosa) for production of charcoal and traditional wood products. The Centre for Economic Botany at Kew has conducted a study of commercial use of wild species in England and Wales and releasing a popular book in conjunction with the Go Wild festival.

Festival Features: Wild Harvest Exhibition >>>

Wild Fact 33: The world's oldest known wooden artefact is a 250,000 year old spear may from the wood of a Yew tree (Taxus baccata). It was found at Clacton in Essex.

Festival Features: Wild Harvest Exhibition >>>

Wild Fact 39: Willow bark has been used in infusion as a remedy for colds and 'the ague' (malaria and other fevers) since ancient times. In the 19th century the active ingredient, salicylic acid, (from the Latin for willow - Salix) was isolated from willow and also from an herbaceous plant of damp habitats - meadowsweet (Filipendula ulmaria). A closely related compound was first synthesised in 1899 and named 'Aspirin' in reference to an old scientific name for Meadowsweet (Spiraea ulmaria). (Flora Brittanica, R. Mabey, 1996)

Festival Features: Field Hospital >>>

Festival Features: Weaving Biodiversity >>>

Festival Features: Grown Home >>>

Wild Fact 47: King George III suffered from insomnia. This was cured by sleeping on a pillow stuffed with hops (Humulus lupulus) following the counsel of one of his political advisors.

Festival Features: Something's Brewing at Kew >>>

Festival Features: Field Hospital >>>

Wild Fact 48: The first evidence of the use of charcoal by man is in European cave paintings which use charcoal as a black pigment around 30,000 years ago. This charcoal may have been waste from fires rather than deliberately produced material.

Festival Features: Charcoal Burner's Encampment >>>

External link: English Charcoal >>>

What is biodiversity?
What is a native plant?
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