News and Updates
NEW BOOKS
The Genus Inga
The
Genus Inga - Botany (ISBN 1 900347 12 1, £60), published by Kew
in March, is one product of a five-year study of these
neotropical legume trees by Dr Terry Pennington funded by ODA.
Inga has been used for centuries for food, shade and fuelwood,
but species also flourish on degraded soils giving them potential
in agroforestry and soil improvement. To produce the monographic
account of 258 species, Terry examined over 10,000 herbarium
collections and spent nearly two years in Latin America with
collaborating local botanists studying wild populations. Most
species are illustrated and have distribution maps generated by
computer from herbarium specimen data. The book represents
Kew’s multi-disciplinary approach to monographs with the
systematic treatment being accompanied by accounts of wood
anatomy by Dr Peter Gasson, cytology by Lynda Hanson, non-protein
amino acids by Dr Geoffrey Kite and flavonoids by Prof. Jeffrey
Harborne (Reading University). A second volume, The Genus Inga
- Utilization, to be published later this year, will present data
obtained from field trials on the use of Inga as multipurpose
trees in small scale agroforestry and forestry systems.
Accompanying volumes in Spanish will also describe the genus in
Ecuador and Peru.
Contact: Dr Terry
Pennington (0181-332 5234)
Pteridology in Perspective
The proceedings of the Holttum Memorial Pteridophyte
Symposium (Kew, 1995), Pteridology in Perspective (eds J.M.
Camus, M. Gibby & R.J. Johns, ISBN 1 900347 09 1, £60), were
published in December 1996 by Kew. The symposium commemorated the
centenary of the birth of Prof. Eric Holttum (1985-1990) and was
designed to reflect his broad interest in pteridology and his
life-long example of encouragement. Accordingly, the proceedings
cover a wide range of pteridological research (from the molecular
level through to anatomy, systematics, physiology, ecology,
conservation and horticulture) and many of the refereed papers
are by innovative young scientists who were encouraged to give
oral presentations at the symposium.
Index Filicum
The sixth supplement to Index Filicum (prepared by Bob
Johns) has been published by Kew and provides an index to the
family, generic, infrageneric, specific and subspecific names of
the ferns and fern allies published between 1976 and 1990. ISBN 1
900347 11 3. £30.
Contact: Bob
Johns (0181-332 5293)
Iris Research
About half of Kew’s 857 accessions of Iris are
grown in the Melon Yard. Species and hybrids of the
‘reticulata’ group are currently the subject of
detailed chromosome and molecular analyses. This work is shedding
new light on the systematic delimitation of the group and the
parentage of the 30 highly attractive cultivars, some of which
are difficult to name because of subtle colour variation.
Contact: Margaret Johnson
(0181-332 5377)
Natural
source Iris danfordiae.
Those who know only the large, commercial triploid form of this
Turkish endemic will be interested in the tiny scented flowers of
the wild diploid, which is difficult to cultivate.
Contact: Tony Hall
Helleborus
thibetanus (= H. chinensis) flowered for
the first time at Kew this January and gained both a Preliminary
Commendation and a Botanical Certificate from the RHS. Although
described in 1885, H. thibetanus
is still extremely rare in cultivation. Kew’s plant was
raised from seed received in 1991. The Hellebore Collection at
Kew is being developed to hold all species and subspecies and a
new public display border has been created as a focus for the
collection.
Contacts: Tony Hall and Graham Madill (0181-332 5961)
Faridah
Qamaruz Zaman at this year’s Orchid Festival. Faridah is
starting a Malaysian-funded Ph.D. project on orchid conservation
genetics, focusing on Orchis simia and
a group of Malaysian Paphiopedilum
species. Kew was chosen to host the project after a visit by
Prof. Ruth Kiew of Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM). On
completion, Faridah will return to UPM to set up a molecular
laboratory.
Contact: Dr Mike
Fay (0181-332 5374)
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