Qualla: Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew

Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew: Introduction

Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Basher Eyre, CC BY-SA 2.0. Somewhere in a basement at Wakehurst Place, in deep Sussex countryside, sit more than 2.4 billion seeds. They are held in airtight glass vials at minus twenty degrees Celsius, sorted by species, gathered from nearly 40,000 different plants by scientists working with partners in more than 95 countries. If a forest burns somewhere in central Africa, if a meadow vanishes under a Bolivian highway, if the last patch of an island endemic dies in a hurricane, there is a reasonable chance that the species itself is still alive here, asleep in the dark, waiting. That is what the Millennium Seed Bank does. It is one half of the operation called the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew - and the other half, the famous Victorian glasshouses in south-west London, gets all the postcards.

Image: Basher Eyre | CC BY-SA 2.0

Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew: 326 Acres and 40 Listed Buildings

Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit CGP Grey, CC BY 2.0. Kew Gardens sits on the south bank of the Thames in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, about ten miles south-west of central London. The site covers 326 acres and contains 40 historically important buildings - the Palm House, the Temperate House, the Pagoda, the Princess...

Image: CGP Grey | CC BY 2.0

Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew: How Kew Names the World

Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Basher Eyre, CC BY-SA 2.0. When a botanist wants to know whether a plant has been described before, and what to legally call it, Kew is often the answer. The International Plant Names Index - run jointly with the Harvard University Herbaria and the Australian National Herbarium since 1999 - is the global r...

Image: Basher Eyre | CC BY-SA 2.0

Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew: Hooker's Inheritance

Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Basher Eyre, CC BY-SA 2.0. Kew's modern shape is largely the work of Sir William Jackson Hooker, who became director in 1841, and his son Joseph Dalton Hooker, who succeeded him in 1865. They turned what had been a royal pleasure garden into a serious scientific institution. Joseph - a friend and collabora...

Image: Basher Eyre | CC BY-SA 2.0

Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew: Why a Seed Bank Matters

Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Basher Eyre, CC BY-SA 2.0. Storing seeds is not as straightforward as it sounds. Some species, like coconuts and oaks, do not survive freezing - their seeds are 'recalcitrant' and must be kept alive in cultivation. But the seeds of most flowering plants can be dried down to low moisture and held for decade...

Image: Basher Eyre | CC BY-SA 2.0

Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew: Public Body, Private Charm

Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Annie Pressland, Public domain. Technically, the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew is a non-departmental public body sponsored by the UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. The chair of trustees is Dame Amelia Fawcett. Eleven members serve, including Sir Paul Nurse, Krishnan Guru-Murthy, and Judith Bat...

Image: Annie Pressland | Public domain