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.
Sir William Jackson Hooker was an English botanist and botanical illustrator, who became the first director of Kew when in 1841 it was recommended to be placed under state ownership as a botanic garden. At Kew he founded the Herbarium and enlarged the gardens and arboretum. The standard author abbreviation Hook. is used to indicate this person as the author when citing a botanical name.
Richard Turner (1798–1881) was an Irish iron founder and manufacturer of glasshouses, born in Dublin. He is rated as one of the most important glasshouse designers of his time. His works included the Palm House at Kew Gardens, the glasshouse in the Winter Gardens at Regent's Park in London, the Palm House at Belfast Botanic Gardens and the Curvilinear Range at the Irish National Botanic Gardens, Glasnevin, Ireland.
Coriaria is the sole genus in the family Coriariaceae, which was described by Linnaeus in 1753. It includes 14 species of small trees, shrubs and subshrubs, with a widespread but disjunct distribution across warm temperate regions of the world, occurring as far apart as the Mediterranean region, southern and eastern Asia, New Zealand, the Pacific Ocean islands, and Central and South America.
Ulmus 'Exoniensis', the Exeter elm, was discovered near Exeter, England, in 1826, and propagated by the Ford & Please nursery in that city. Traditionally believed to be a cultivar of the Wych Elm U. glabra, its fastigiate shape when young, upward-curving tracery, small samarae and leaves, late leaf-flush and late leaf-fall, taken with its south-west England provenance, suggest a link with the Cornish Elm, which shares these characteristics.
William Ramsay McNab was a Scottish physician and botanist.
Libocedrus plumosa, with the common name kawaka, is a species of Libocedrus that is endemic to New Zealand.
Leptinella is a genus of alpine flowering plant in the family Asteraceae, comprising 33 species, distributed in New Guinea, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and South America. Many of the species are endemic to New Zealand.
Kew Gardens is a botanic garden in southwest London that houses the "largest and most diverse botanical and mycological collections in the world". Founded in 1840, from the exotic garden at Kew Park, its living collections include some of the 27,000 taxa curated by Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, while the herbarium, one of the largest in the world, has over 8.5 million preserved plant and fungal specimens. The library contains more than 750,000 volumes, and the illustrations collection contains more than 175,000 prints and drawings of plants. It is one of London's top tourist attractions and is a World Heritage Site.
Tillandsia plumosa is a species of flowering plant in the family Bromeliaceae. This species is native to Mexico.
Lee and Kennedy were two families of prominent Scottish nurserymen in partnership for three generations at the Vineyard Nursery in Hammersmith, west of London. "For many years," wrote John Claudius Loudon in 1854, "this nursery was deservedly considered the first in the world."
Iris scariosa is a plant species in the genus Iris, it is also in the subgenus Iris. It is a rhizomatous perennial, from the mountainsides of Russia, Kazakhstan, Mongolia and China. It has sword-like, or sickle shaped, blue green or grey-green leaves, a short flowering stem, 3 or 4 membranous or semi-transparent flower bud leaves, 2 violet, reddish violet, lilac, blue-purple, or blue flowers in late spring, with yellow or white beards. It is cultivated as an ornamental plant in temperate regions. It was merged with another similar iris in the region, and Iris glaucescens became a synonym of Iris scariosa, before being divided into two separate species again. Although some sources still call it the main species, despite a slight colour difference.
Liatris scariosa, called savanna blazing star, is a species of flowering plant in the genus Liatris, native to the US states of Maryland, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia. It is fire-adapted, and its seeds germinate if they detect chemicals from plant smoke. It is a perennial herb that grows in dry woods and clearings. The Latin specific epithet scariosa means shriveled.
Ninian Niven was a Scottish horticulturist and landscape gardener.
Jarava plumosa is a species of grass in the family Poaceae, native to the Southern Cone of South America. It has been introduced to other places with a Mediterranean climate; California, Spain, Israel, the Cape Provinces of South Africa, and South Australia. As its synonym Stipa papposa it has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit as an ornamental in spite of its invasive potential.
Serruria candicans, the shiny spiderhead, is a flower-bearing shrub that belongs to the genus Serruria and forms part of the fynbos. The plant is native to the Western Cape, where it occurs from Elandskloof to the Slanghoek Mountains and Paardeberg at Malmesbury. The shrub is erect and grows only 80 cm tall and bears flowers from July to December.
Serruria cyanoides, the Wynberg spiderhead, is a flower-bearing shrub that belongs to the genus Serruria and forms part of the fynbos.
Serruria glomerata, the cluster spiderhead, is a flower-bearing shrub that belongs to the genus Serruria and forms part of the fynbos. The plant is native to the Western Cape, it occurs on the Cape Flats and Cape Peninsula. The shrub is erect and grows only 40 cm tall and bears flowers from August to October.
Serruria villosa, the golden spiderhead, is a flower-bearing shrub that belongs to the genus Serruria and forms part of the fynbos. The plant is native to the Western Cape, where it occurs only on the Cape Peninsula and just south of Constantia. The shrub is erect and grows only 50 cm tall and bears flowers from April to July.
Serruria collina, also known as the lost spiderhead, is a flower-bearing shrub that belongs to the genus Serruria and forms part of the fynbos. The plant is native to the Western Cape.
