Plants in action at Kew

Plants are essential for clear air and water, food medicine and fuel. About 70% of the world’s population rely on plants for medicine. Scientists at Kew endeavour to discover new ways to make use of plants for good and share this knowledge with others.

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Food for when all else fails - collect from the wild or cultivate?

by: Tim Harris, Herbarium blog
11 Feb 2013

A successful yam cultivation project in Madagascar cannot keep up with demand for cultivated yams.

The taste of the Amazon

by: Wolfgang Stuppy, Millennium Seed Bank blog
09 Nov 2012

This month Kew's Seed Morphologist, Wolfgang Stuppy, brings us a post about his recent adventures in the Amazon. Now safely back in the Millennium Seed Bank, he can share with us news of Cupuaçu; the taste of the Amazon!

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 blog
21 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.

Conservators care for tapa cloth at Kew

by: Daniel Barter & Cristina Liria, Economic Botany blog
15 Aug 2011

Two conservation students from Camberwell College of Arts have spent three weeks surveying barkcloth specimens from the Pacific.

The mysterious hanging diagrams of Museum No. 2

by: Caroline Cornish, Economic Botany blog
09 Aug 2011

One of Kew's PhD students investigates the beautiful posters that once hung in Kew's museums.

Useful plants just got beautiful

by: Christina Harrison, Kew magazine blog
05 Jul 2011

That was one of the main messages of The Times Eureka garden at this year's RHS Chelsea Flower Show – useful plants should be appreciated for both their beauty and their vital utility.

A Journey to the 'Land of Many Waters'

by: Sara Albuquerque, Economic Botany blog
15 Jun 2011

Sara Albuquerque updates us on her journey to Guyana, in the footsteps of Sir Everard im Thurm.

Kew's Garden at Chelsea Flower Show 2011

Kew's garden at Chelsea is revealed

24 May 2011

Kew's garden at Chelsea Flower Show 2011 showcases the significance of plants to science and society, through an eye-catching and innovative design by Chelsea gold medallist Marcus Barnett. See more photos of the garden on Kew's Flickr page and tell us what you think!


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Designer Marcus Barnett's Times Eureka Garden Design

Kew teams up with The Times for Chelsea 2011

15 Jan 2011

Kew is delighted to announce that it is working in partnership with The Times to create a garden showcasing the significance of plants to science and society, through an eye-catching and innovative design by Chelsea gold medallist Marcus Barnett.


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High Society - the culture and history of mind-altering drugs

by: Mark Nesbitt, Economic Botany blog
04 Jan 2011

Kew's Economic Botany Collection has been a major lender of psychoactive plants to the Wellcome Collection's exhibition 'High Society'.

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Black and white photo of women having a tea break at Kew Gardens

Book of the month - The Story of Kew Gardens in Photographs

08 May 2013
This book tells the fascinating story of Kew Gardens through over two hundred and fifty black and white photographs, many of which have never been seen before.


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Photo of a primula auricula 'Dilly Dilly' raised by Keith Leeming

Auriculas - a most beguiling plant now on sale at Kew Gardens

02 May 2013
Stunning auriculas bred by Chelsea Gold medal award winners William, Joan and Simon Lockyer will be sold in the Victoria Plaza garden shop at Kew Gardens from Friday 3 May 2013. Visit soon as stock is limited.


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