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.
Ulmus castaneifoliaHemsley, the chestnut-leafed elm or multinerved elm, is a small deciduous tree found across much of China in broadleaved forests at elevations of 500–1,600 metres (1,600–5,200 ft).
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.
Mount Mabu is a mountain in northern Mozambique, famous for its old-growth rain forest. Mount Mabu is approximately 1,700 metres high and the forest covers about 7,000 hectares. While well known locally, the Mount Mabu forest and its extremely diverse wildlife were unknown to plant and animal scientists until 2005. It was visited after browsing Google Earth in 2005 by a team of scientists from the Mulanje Mountain Conservation Trust (MMCT) and several ornithologists, and later in 2008 by scientists from Kew Royal Botanic Gardens; by browsing Google Earth's satellite view to look for potential unknown wildlife hotspots in Africa. It is frequently referred to as the "Google Forest".
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 an honorary research fellow and former head of palm research at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, United Kingdom, as well as being an authority on the phylogenetic classification of palms.
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.
Aporosa tetrapleura is a species of plant in the family Phyllanthaceae found in Cambodia and Vietnam. The wood is used in house and cattle barn construction and as firewood.
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 are sweet and edible, but have little flesh and so are typically collected to ferment into alcoholic beverages. The desert truffle Kalaharituber pfeilii is often found in association with its roots.
