Kew Science blog
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Kew goes to the Flora Malesiana 10 symposium
Kew scientists report back after attending a symposium focused on South-East Asian taxonomy, systematics and conservation.
Taming the Savage Cabbage
Medicinal properties of succulent plants
Olwen Grace, Research Leader in Comparative Plant and Fungal Biology, and PhD student Madeleine Ernst from the University of Copenhagen, discuss evolutionary studies of the medicinal value of succulent plants.
Tropical Important Plant Areas in the British Virgin Islands
Kew’s UK Overseas Territories (UKOTs) team recently returned from a successful launch of the Tropical Important Plant Areas project in the British Virgin Islands. Rosemary Newton reflects on the highlights of this trip.
Madagascar's orphans of extinction
Plants and conflict landscapes – the Somme and beyond
James Wearn and Andrew Budden describe the context for their recent expedition to the Somme, and explain how Kew’s former Director, Sir Arthur Hill, inspired their research.
Extreme survival of seeds on Earth and in space
Anne Visscher from Kew’s Comparative Plant and Fungal Biology department discusses extreme survival of seeds on Earth and a research proposal to send seeds to the International Space Station to test their survival in outer space.
The diversity of terra incognita: predicting orchid species richness in New Guinea
André Schuiteman, Research Leader in Identification and Naming, explains how we can predict the species richness of unexplored areas.
What inspires a research idea?
Alex Monro, Research Leader in Identification & Naming, explains how he developed a proposal to understand and evaluate the importance of wet, high elevation oak forests for conservation in Latin America.
Training the trainers in Guinea
In February 2016, Kew Africa and Madagascar team members Martin Cheek, Charlotte Couch and Isabel Larridon travelled to Guinea in West-Africa for fieldwork and to train local botanists.
Hidden poisons in rhododendron nectar
Philip Stevenson (Plant Chemist) and Alison Scott-Brown (Plant/Insect Ecologist) from Kew’s Natural Capital and Plant Health department report on the toxicity of natural chemicals in the nectar and leaves of Rhododendron.
Pollen and pollinators in legumes
Kew scientist Hannah Banks, a member of the Comparative Plant and Fungal Biology team, speculates on whether we can use pollen structure to predict which species are vulnerable or resilient to environmental change.
APG - classification by consensus
Kew scientist Mike Fay discusses the issues with classifying flowering plant species, and the efforts made by the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group (APG) to reclassify species using technological advances in DNA sequencing.
Unpacking tapa: the science and culture of Pacific barkcloth
Mark Nesbitt, Research Leader for Economic Botany, reports on a major new research project using Kew’s historic collections.
Bolivian Botanical Conference in Sucre
Kew scientist Bente Klitgård reports back from the 3rd Bolivian Botanical Conference in Sucre, and explains the importance of scientific conferences.
Assessing the flammability of New Zealand plants
Sarah Wyse, an Early Career Research Fellow in our Collections Department, describes the first empirical study to measure the flammability of a range New Zealand plant species, recently published in the International Journal of Wildland Fire.
Tales from the tropics
Kew MSc students write home from Madagascar, where they are currently in the field.
Experts to gather at Kew to discuss the State of the World's Plants
Kew science officer Laura Rozario reveals the hot topics to be discussed in the forthcoming State of the World’s Plants Symposium to be held at Kew this May.
Gaps in global wild crop collections
Danielle Haddad and Ruth Harker report on the results of the global gap analysis paper 'Global Conservation Priorities for Crop Wild Relatives', published in Nature Plants on 21 March 2016.
Kew's successful year of discoveries
In 2015, Kew scientists and their collaborators from around the world published 149 species of plants and fungi new to science, as reported in the Independent on Sunday. Martin Cheek reveals the stories behind the species.