Science & Conservation at Kew
As well as a World Heritage Site with 250 years of history, Kew is a world leading plant science and conservation organisation. Our scientific resources and expertise are focused on finding plant-based solutions to global challenges such as biodiversity loss, food and water security, poverty, disease and changing climate. The strategy at the heart of this work is Kew’s Breathing Planet Programme.
Kew's Breathing Planet Programme (pdf) | Support Kew - adopt a seed for £25
Helping the planet breathe
Kew's Breathing Planet Programme consists of seven roads to a more resilient planet. Find out more about our work here.
The latest news and blogs
Celebrating the launch of JSTOR Global Plants
by: Kat Harrington, Library, Art and Archives blog 24 May 2013
Kew's unique Directors' Correspondence collection is being made available digitally through a new collaborative website, JSTOR Global Plants.
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Bluebells in Kew's natural area
by: Anthony Hall, Arboretum team blog 23 May 2013
Few floral sights in late spring can better a mass of bluebells carpeting a woodland floor.
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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.
World's smallest waterlily brought back from the brink of extinction at Kew
18 May 2010
Kew’s top propagation ‘code-breaker’, horticulturist Carlos Magdalena, has cracked the enigma of growing a rare species of African waterlily. The 'thermal’ lily (Nymphaea thermarum) is believed to be the smallest waterlily in the world, with pads that can be as little as 1 cm in diameter.
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.
Celebrating plants and water
This year the 'United Nations International Day of Biological Diversity' celebrates water.
Biodiversity describes the variety and variability of all living things on earth.
Water is vital to life and, in turn, biodiversity cleans, cycles and regulates the world’s water. Kew’s projects around the world aim to understand and conserve valuable plant diversity, to safeguard the vital services provided by natural vegetation, including water.
Making a difference around the world
Explore Kew's interactive map and find out how our science and conservation work is making a huge difference in the UK and around the world.
Find out about the new discoveries Kew's science teams have made across plant science and mycology, how the Millennium Seed Bank Partnership is driving vital global conservation work and how our innovative research into the use of plants is helping communities worldwide.
All life depends on plants - and not just those we value most. The health of the planet - and our future - depends on the immense wealth of different species of plants and fungi that grow in the Earth's many and varied habitats.
Why you need Kew
More than one in five of the world's plants are threatened with extinction. We all rely on plants for food, clean air and water, but they are more threatened than birds, and as threatened as mammals. We need to understand more about how plants adapt to environmental change, and how to use them in ways that are sustainable. Much of Kew’s work is focused on these challenges.
- Explore the state of plant life around the world
- Local plants for local people
- Kew video - Perspectives on biodiversity
- Support Kew's work by adopting a seed for £25
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