Science and conservation news
Keep up to date with the latest science and conservation news and blogs from Kew. Here you will find all the latest articles about our work in the UK and around the world. Research news of interest to specialists is reported in our specialist science news page and our newsletter Kew Scientist.
Specialist science news | Go behind the scenes with Kew blogs
GIS surveys in New Guinea
13 Dec 2011
Kew botanists have helped to survey the vegetation of Biak Island, off the north coast of New Guinea.
6 likes1 comment
Sir Joseph Hooker and the UK Overseas Territories
by: Pat Griggs, UK Overseas Territories team blog09 Dec 2011
On the 100th anniversary of the death of one of the greatest botanists of the Victorian era, Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker, find out about the unique plants that he encountered on his visits to the UKOTs and how this experience influenced his theories on plant distribution, which he later shared with Charles Darwin.
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Adapting agriculture to a changing climate
28 Nov 2011
The Millennium Seed Bank Partnership has begun work to collect seed from the wild relatives of 26 crop plants as their genetic diversity may enable us to adapt agricultural crops to the climates of the future.
7 likes1 comment
World's first night-flowering orchid is discovered
22 Nov 2011
Botanists from the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and the Netherlands Centre for Biodiversity Naturalis have described the first night-flowering orchid known to science on the island of New Britain, near New Guinea.
72 likes5 comments
Monitoring the effect of an invasive pine scale insect on the national tree of the Turks and Caicos Islands
by: Sara Green, UK Overseas Territories team blog21 Nov 2011
While an introduced scale insect devastates the Caicos pine in the Turks and Caicos Islands (TCI), Sara Green, a Conservation Science MSc student from Imperial College, London investigated the impact that the insect is having on the tree’s habitat and the effectiveness of different techniques of controlling this pest.
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Botanical survey doubles the known flora of Lunda Norte, Angola
21 Nov 2011
A rapid survey of three river catchments in a remote area of Angola has provided reasons for their designation under the Angolan Protected Areas Expansion Strategy.
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Conserving British waxcap fungi
18 Nov 2011
A Defra-funded project at Kew is working to find out how many waxcap species there are in Britain, and to improve methods for their identification. The results of this work should help conservationists to prioritise those species and sites which are most in need of further protection.
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Plant remains tell a two thousand year story of landscape change
14 Nov 2011
Archaeological plant remains from an environmentally degraded valley in the deserts of southern Peru reveal the rise and fall of agricultural production.
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Join Kew experts on an expedition to Central America
10 Nov 2011
Discover the remotest corners of Central America and the Caribbean with Kew scientists on a small expedition ship. An amazing discovery and adventure opportunity for members and Friends of Kew.
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Palms as a model for rainforest evolution
07 Nov 2011
The first complete genus-level dated phylogeny of palms reveals insights into the evolution of rainforests.
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Science & Conservation
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Specialist science news
A new typology of seed development in late winter-flowering temperate woodland plants
23 May 2013
Research at the Millennium Seed Bank (RBG Kew) and the University of Reading has identified a new typology of seed development.
What are hard seeds for?
14 May 2013
A new hypothesis has been proposed on why some seeds are hard.
Is our daily cup of coffee under threat?
08 Nov 2012
A new study from Kew suggests that Arabica coffee could be extinct in the wild within 70 years.
Director (CEO and Chief Scientist) of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew to return to Australia
14 Sep 2011
The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew announced today that Director (CEO and Chief Scientist), Professor Stephen Hopper FLS will step down in autumn 2012 after six years in the job.
