This week I have been launched
like a t-shirt & short clad rocket into the ‘Great Glasshouses’, having been posted to the Tropical Nursery with responsibility for
‘Zone 9, woody tropical’. The Tropical Nursery contains 21 separate zones, all
independently controlled and heated to accommodate the exotic collections
contained within, with species from the four corners of the globe being
nurtured here!
Although the largest
glasshouse at Kew this area only opens to the public once a year, with us mostly
behind the scenes ferretting away to maintain the collections, and supply
plants when needed to the Palm House, Temperate House and other public display
houses. My zone harbours some delightful specimens, including a collection of
Passiflora species and hybrids, large collections from the island of Mauritius,
three benches of assorted tropical climbers and a healthy gang of small trees.
These coves will not settle for any less than around 22°C and 90-100% humidity,
which hopefully explains this issue of my extremely casual and informal attire!
The plants here are dashed interesting and rather rare, with a number of
species, particularly amongst the Mauritius collection, either extinct in the
wild or down to one or two remaining plants. This is quite a change of focus
compared to the work at Hidcote, with plants being grown to conserve the species
and have them readily available for propagation, instead of cultivation for
beautiful flowers or long season of interest. Much
of the Mauritius collection was brought back as seeds and cuttings from expeditions
to the island by my day-to-day Boss Man, Carlos Magdalena. This egg has been
described by the BBC as ‘the plant messiah’ on account of his propagating
several rare species previously at risk of extinction. Although I am so far unfortunately
unable to report any miracles, I can tell you he is inspiringly
enthusiastic about plants and propagation, and basically seems to have the
ardent patience and extensive
knowledge base to fathom out ways of propagating these rare plants
which have never been seen before in cultivation.
I will be featuring some
more of the action from the Tropical Nursery before my placement ends, but here
is an initial introduction to some of the plants residing here!
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The tropical mayhem of Zone 9! |
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One of the many assorted climbers here, the large
flowered Stictocardia beraviensis
|
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Caesalpinia pulcherrima is a glorious legume with
these striking whirls of flower |
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Several water tanks house lotus and water lily
specimens; and this dainty chap is the world’s smallest water lily, Nymphaea
thermarum |
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Some days with the light streaming in it’s easy
to imagine being lost in a jungle! |
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Passiflora xiikzodz is a delicate little egg,
and forms one small part of the huge passion flower collection |
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Several of the plants in the zone are harvested
by humans, with the cotton wool plant Gossypium herbaceum utilised across
Africa and Asia |
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Antigonon leptopus is an amazing climber known
as the coral vine. It can be a weed in places like Florida, but in less hardy
climes I suspect it may have the vigour to be used as an annual like Cobaea
scandens, etc. |
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Hibiscus liliflorus; a combination of Latin
words to set the old pulse racing! This beautiful gem is now extinct in the
wild, but grown in gardens all over Mauritius |
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This drooping glory comes from India and is Thunbergia
mysorensis |
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Hibiscus species are also well represented in
the collection, with H. arnottianus seen here from Hawaii |
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Tropical insects and animals are unfortunately
lacking in Zone 9, but we do get the odd cockroach mooching about the place! |
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Carlos and myself in the full panoply prepared
for spraying! |
4 comments:
Bertie, your photos are stunning. I particularly like the tiny water lily shot, with the leaves surrounding the flower, it's a competition winner I reckon. You are amongst plants I've never even heard of - I sure am going to learn from your blog over the next few years!
Amazing plants.
It's great to have you back blogging. I missed your huour and your insights and I hope we will still be able to see your old blog pages about butterflies etc as they educate people
Greetings all! Martin, many thanks.
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