Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew is a non-departmental public body in the United Kingdom sponsored by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. An internationally important botanical research and education institution, it employs 1,100 staff. Its board of trustees is chaired by Dame Amelia Fawcett.
Meliaceae, the mahogany family, is a flowering plant family of mostly trees and shrubs in the order Sapindales.
Carapa is a genus of flowering plants in the mahogany family, Meliaceae. These are trees up to 30 meters tall occurring in tropical South America, Central America, and Africa. Common names include andiroba and crabwood.
Xymalos monospora, commonly known as lemonwood, is a species of evergreen tree native to Africa, the only species in the genus Xymalos. It is an Afromontane endemic, and can be found from 900 to 2700 meters elevation in the highlands of Eastern Africa from Sudan to South Africa, as well as on Mount Cameroon and Bioko in west-central Africa.
Juniperus procera is a coniferous tree native to mountainous areas in Africa and the Arabian Peninsula. It is a characteristic tree of the Afromontane flora.
Habenaria, commonly called rein orchids or bog orchids, is a widely distributed genus of orchids in the tribe Orchideae. About 880 species of Habenaria have been formally described. They are native to every continent except Antarctica, growing in both tropical and subtropical zones.
Monodora myristica, the calabash nutmeg or African nutmeg, is a tropical tree of the family Annonaceae or custard apple family of flowering plants. It is native to tropical Africa from Sierra Leone in the west to Tanzania. In former times, its seeds were widely sold as an inexpensive nutmeg substitute. This is now less common outside its region of production. Other names of calabash nutmeg include Jamaican nutmeg, ehuru, ariwo, awerewa, ehiri, airama, African orchid nutmeg, muscadier de Calabash and lubushi.
Kerriodoxa elegans, the white backed palm, is the only species of palm tree in the genus Kerriodoxa, in the family Arecaceae.
Poga is a genus of flowering plants in the family Anisophylleaceae. It has only one currently accepted species, Poga oleosa, a large tree found from southeast Nigeria to Gabon. Its common names include afo nut, inoi/inoy nut and poga. Its seeds are dispersed by forest elephants. Local people collect and sell the edible nuts for their oil. The wood, known as ovoga, is used for veneers, furniture and boxes.
John Dransfield is former head of palm research at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, United Kingdom.
Lasiodiscus fasciculiflorus is a species of shrub or small tree in the family Rhamnaceae that is native to forests of the West African tropics. It occurs from Sierra Leone to Nigeria and the D.R.C. The bark is used in medicine to treat various ailments.
Markhamia obtusifolia is a species of plant in the family Bignoniaceae. It is found in Southern Africa.
Markhamia zanzibarica, also known as bell bean tree or maroon bell-bean, is a species of plant in the family Bignoniaceae. It is found in East Africa and Southern Africa, from Kenya to South Africa.
Vachellia macracantha is a species of tree in the family Fabaceae. Its native range spans from southern Florida to South America.
Protea rubropilosa, also known as the Transvaal sugarbush, escarpment sugarbush or Transvaal mountain sugarbush, is a flowering tree, that belongs to the genus Protea in the family Proteaceae. The plant only occurs in South Africa.
Crataegus lassa, the sandhill hawthorn, is a species of hawthorn native to the southeastern United States. Small trees or large shrubs, they have a characteristic weeping or drooping habit, and grow in pine barrens, the Carolina sandhills region, the Florida longleaf pine sandhills, and similar areas with well-drained soils.
Salix pierotii, the Korean willow, is a species of willow native to northeast China, far eastern Russia, the Korean peninsula and Japan. They are shrubs or trees reaching 8 m. Because their twisted wood is not good for timber or making tools, in Japan Salix pierotii trees are used to demarcate property lines between farms.
Crataegus schuettei, the royal hawthorn or Schuette's hawthorn, is a species of shrubby tree in the family Rosaceae, native to northeastern North America; from Arkansas and North Carolina north to Ontario and Quebec. It is typically found growing in forest edges and old fields. Its ripe fruit is red.
Campnosperma brevipetiolatum is a species of tree in the Anacardiaceae family. It is native to an area in the west Pacific and Malesia from the Santa Cruz Islands to the Caroline Islands and Sulawesi. It is commonly used for its timber, including for canoe making, but also for oil-production and medicine. It has been used as an indicator species to identify 19th century sites of indigenous occupation in the Solomon Islands.
Grewia flava, the brandy bush, wild currant, velvet raisin, or raisin tree, is a species of flowering plant in the family Malvaceae, native to southern Africa. A common shrub species, it is spreading into grasslands due to human rangeland management practices, and increasing rainfall. The berries, which are yellowish-brown and slightly lobed, are sweet and edible, but have little flesh and so are typically collected in large quantities to be eaten raw, dried or fermented into alcoholic beverages. The wood has a number of uses such as for making bows, knobkerries, traps and other tools. The desert truffle Kalaharituber pfeilii is often found in association with its roots.
