Category: displays

The new Australian display

Posted on by andy.winfield

By Helen Roberts

The newly established Australian display is thriving at the University of Bristol Botanic Garden. This new area has been developed over the last year few years with the aim of introducing visitors to the captivating flora from the Mediterranean climatic region of Western and Southern Australia. The new display is part of the strategic plan for the Garden and follows on from the creation of the Mediterranean and southwest South Africa zones (N Wray 2017, personal communication, 27th July). 
The Australian display still under development
at the Botanic Garden.
This display aims to broadly showcase some of the hardier plants of Western and Southern Australia but also concentrates on the highly diverse flora of the “Kwongan“, one of a number of special habitats that make up the Southwest Australia ecoregion. This ecoregion is acknowledged worldwide as one of the world’s most important biodiversity hotspots. 
Kwongan is the aboriginal term used for the mixed waxy leaved shrubland and heathland assemblage found in the southwest of Western Australia and South Australia around Adelaide. The Kwongan is comparable to the other types of shrubland and heathlands plant communities with a Mediterranean climate, such as South Africa’s fynbos, California’s chaparral, France’s maquis and Chile’s matorral. The Kwongan sandy soils are impoverished of nutrients and the climate, with its winter rain and summer droughts, has meant plants have evolved some extraordinary adaptations and survival tricks to cope with the difficult conditions. Theses plant communities display high levels of species diversity and a number of rare species not found anywhere else. 
There are many important plant families that make up the Kwongan, including the eucalyptus tree species from the myrtle family (Myrtaceae). However, the aim of the display is not to create a landscape dominated by these trees but to highlight some of the fascinating shrubs and subshrubs. A small winding path enables visitors to get up close and personal to some of these plants and be immersed in the wonderful fragrance emitted from the vegetation. Firstly, the Callistemon (bottle brushes) were planted from the Myrtaceae family, including the weeping bottle brush (Callistemon viminalis), a beautiful arching shrub with deep red bottle brush flowers. The name refers to the beautiful flowers, ‘calli’ coming from the Greek word meaning beautiful and ‘stemon’ meaning stamen, the male part of a flower. 
Banksia in bloom.
Photo credit: Shannon Martin
via Flickr [CC by 2.0]
The other important families for this display include the unusual plant family called the Proteaceae, which contains Banksia, Dryandra, Hakea, Isopogon and Grevillea. Many of these species are only found in the Mediterranean climatic region of Western and Southern Australia. All have exquisitely striking flowers and sculptural foliage. The Banksias are particularly interesting though. The flower heads are composed of hundreds of tiny flowers ranging in colour from yellow through to red. The fruits look like cones, with the seed encased to protect against seed eaters. These cone-like structures are what is termed serotinous where seed is let loose in response to an environmental trigger, which in Banksia’s case is fire or extreme drought. 
Other beautiful flowering shrubs that have been included in this attractive display are the kangaroo paws, Anigozanthos, whose flowers do vaguely resemble the paws of marsupials. The flowers themselves are vibrant and extremely eye-catching, held up on long tall stems to be pollinated by birds. The flower is arranged so that pollen is deposited on the heads of nectar feeding birds, with different Anigozanthos species leaving pollen on different parts of the birds’ head.
This new display has been intentionally placed adjacent to the southwestern South Africa display. The two continents were once connected forming the supercontinent Gondwana some 200 million years ago. In both countries, species from the Proteaceae and Myrtaceae are represented. This area of the garden is set to be further developed through a strategic plan to include five main plant assemblages of the Mediterranean climatic region. Three have now been accomplished. Next to look forward to are the plant assemblages from Central Chile and Western California. 
Helen Roberts is a trained landscape architect with a background in plant sciences. She is a probationary member of the Garden Media Guild and a regular contributor to the University of Bristol Botanic Garden blog.

The pretty peony – a flower of culture

Posted on by andy.winfield

By Helen Roberts

The peony has undeniably beautiful flowers, from the perfect spherical bud giving a hint of the petal colour underneath to the rapid unfurling of immense blooms. Even the foliage is attractive, particularly towards the end of the season when they readily take on autumnal tints.

I admire them in gardens that are not my own for I have never grown peonies, the tree nor the herbaceous species. The flowers, although staggeringly large and of sublime colours and subtle scents, are too short lived for my own small garden. After all peonies need space. However, I am looking forward to the development of a new peony garden in the University of Bristol Botanic Garden. It will form part of a new ‘Culture’ display, which is being implemented this year with the help of the Chinese Garden co-ordinator, Tony Harrison, who is a traditional Chinese herbalist.

Tree peony. Image credit: RHS

Peonies are native to Asia, Southern Europe and North America and are contained within the Paeoniaceae family. There are 4 different types, the tree peony, herbaceous peony, the hybrids and the intersectional peonies, which are crosses of tree and herbaceous peonies. Tony explains the different species of tree peonies [1]:

‘When they first arrived, the Chinese tree peony was thought to be a single species which was named Paeonia suffructicosa, but research showed P. suffructicosa to be a hybrid which has been derived from at least three main species which have been interbred over several thousand years to produce the wide range of cultivars from different regions of China. These original source species were then separated into three separate wild species as P. ostii, P.jishanensis and P. yunanensis.’

A number of species will be cultivated in the new peony display at the Botanic Garden. These will include ones from different regions of China including the wild species of P. ostii, P. jishanensis and P. yunanensis as well as P. delavayi, P. rockii and P. suffructicosa, and several herbaceous species.

A long history of medicinal use

Peony tubers have been used for medicinal purposes for centuries. The bark of the roots is used to treat congestion, blood disorders and worms [2]. Tony explains the importance of peonies in Chinese medicine:

‘Peonies were being used in medicine long before they were cultivated for ornamental purposes. It is considered that peonies have been used medicinally dating back about 2,000 years. The root bark of the tree peony is used to cool and move the blood, whereas the herbaceous peony is used to tonify the blood. The Chinese name for peony is mudan (牧丹) and the characters can be translated to mean the colour “red” but also “medicine” and “healing”. The bark is separated from the remainder of the root, chopped, dried and used in combination with other substances.’

The plant is also revered for its attractiveness. The flower colours range from yellow, cream, red, pink; all the way to lavender and near black [3]. Some have a unique, almost peppery and spicy, scent. I am fond of the smell, it is not cloying or overpowering like some flower scents. The choice of peony hybrids and cultivated varieties is vast, there are so many to choose from. The herbaceous peonies are more commonly grown in Europe and North America and because of this familiarity with the herbaceous form, tree peonies are not as popular. I prefer the tree peonies as they offer interesting foliage and architectural form.

The tree peony has been grown for its flowers in China since the 6th and 7th centuries during the Sui (581-618 AD) and Tang dynasties (618-906 AD) when it appeared in the imperial palaces. It is rumoured to be one of the first flowers to be cultivated purely for its ornamental purposes from the ancient city of Luòyáng and the seat of the Sung dynasty (960-1279 AD), hence it is often called luòyànghuā or flower from Luòyáng [2]. The enthusiasm during the Sung dynasty for peonies is comparable to the tulip mania that gripped Holland in the 17th century and immense sums where paid for highly prized peonies. In Luòyáng many peony exhibitions and shows are still held there annually. Peonies in China are normally cultivated by planting in terraces or raised beds and protected from the harsh summer sun by mat awnings [2].

The symbolism of the peony

Along with many other flowers grown in China, the peony is shrouded in layers of symbolism. Among the tree peonies (Peonia suffruticosa), the male vermilion flower is known as the ‘King of Flowers’ (花王 hūawang) and represents both royalty and aristocracy [2]. The tree peony was originally grown by royalty, the aristocracy and eventually, over time, throughout China. In the imperial palaces, it was often displayed in opulent reception halls, being used as a table plant in large vases. The ink and deep red forms as well as a variety with a yellow edge on the petals, known as the ‘Golden border peony’ were highly valued [4]. The peony is also called fùguìhūa (富貴花), the flower (hūa) of wealth (fù) and rank (guì) symbolising wealth, social status and honour [2]. Despite being associated with the yang principle (male) of masculinity and brightness it also represents female beauty and reproduction, especially erotic lushness [5].

The flowers of the four seasons – the tree peony is spring.
Image: Jimmie on Flickr [CC By 2.0]

The tree peony is one of four flowers which symbolise the seasons; tree peony –  the spring (and March); the lotus – summer; the chrysanthemum – autumn; and the plum – winter.

The herbaceous peonies are termed the ‘Prime Minister of All Flowers’ and are also highly prized.
As well as using the plant form itself, peonies have long been depicted in Chinese art forms (literary and visual) for centuries and they form one of the main motifs in silk tapestries, paintings, lacquerware and clothing. They are often displayed alongside peacock, pheasant, fowl, phoenix and lion to represent splendour, status and nobility [2].

Such is the importance of peonies in Chinese culture that numerous stories and poems have been written and told. There is the wonderful fable of ‘The Fabulous Peony’, where the wicked and vain Empress Wu Zetian ordered all flowers in the Imperial garden to bloom overnight in winter and those that did not would be punished. The senior member of the Imperial garden, the Male Vermillion Peony refused to obey, whilst the other flowers in the garden submitted and duly produced blooms to please Empress Wu.

In her fury at being disobeyed, the peony was banished from the Imperial Palace and anyone growing it would be put to death. To save the peony from destruction the royal gardener, Pei Fu sent roots of the peony to a friend in Luoyang, a place considered lacking in culture and hence not likely a place to arouse suspicion. And here the peony flourished, the peony gardens at Luoyang remaining a secret until the death of the Empress Wu when it emerged out of hiding [6].

Helen Roberts is a trained landscape architect with a background in plant sciences. She is a probationary member of the Garden Media Guild and a regular contributor to the University of Bristol Botanic Garden blog.

References:

[1] Harrison, T. Varieties of Peony. Journal Archive. The Register of Chinese Herbal Medicine.
[2] Williams, C.A.S., 2006. Chinese Symbolism and Art Motifs: A Comprehensive Handbook on Symbolism in Chinese Art Through the Ages. Tuttle Publishing.
[3] Fearnley-Whittingstall, J., 1999. Peonies. Harry N. Abrams.
[4] Li, H.L., 2012. Chinese flower arrangement. Courier Corporation.
[5] Welch, P.B., 2013. Chinese art: A guide to motifs and visual imagery. Tuttle Publishing.
[6] Chew, K., 2008. The Magical Dumplings and Other Chinese Fables. iUniverse.

Latecomers to the summer flowering party

Posted on by andy.winfield

By Helen Roberts

It’s the time of year when most people think that gardens are nearing the end of the full flush of summer blooms. Mid summer flowers may be dwindling but there are numerous late flowering species that still provide a riot of colour. I have always been interested in gardens at this time of year because we are often rewarded with a spell of bright sunny weather in autumn. I want to be outside enjoying the garden, hanging onto the summer for as long as I can before the cold deepens and the nights draw in. So planning for some autumn colour in the garden can be very rewarding.
  
With thoughts of designing my own garden for a prolonged season of flowering, an excursion to the University of Bristol Botanic Garden was due. I met up with Froggie who showed me the bounty of colour at this time of year in the gardens.
First stop was the hot borders which can be found in front of The Holmes, which were evidently at their most scorching in terms of vivid colours, with swathes of Hemerocallis, Penstemon, Helenium, Rudbeckia, Tithonia, Fuchsia and Dahlia. Froggie pointed out the lovely Verbena bonariensis, which is such a great plant for pollinators and one that self seeds profusely. Verbena adds some soft architectural form to borders and provides flowers for months on end. A plant that I was less familiar with was the rather cute and tender Cuphea cyanea or Cigar flower with red and yellow tipped flowers. There is also another variety of Cuphea called the Pink Mouse – each flower does look like a miniscule mouse!
Providing structure to the hot borders were the awesome sub tropical Abyssinian Banana (Ensete ventricosum), which were still looking amazing but will soon be lifted and taken into the greenhouses. The staff keep a close eye on the weather at this time of year, any sign of frost forecast and they must move quickly to take in the tender species.
Froggie explained, “We had some hard winters a few years back and we lost quite a lot of plants so lifting plants into the greenhouses ensures they are protected. They are our insurance against a very cold winter.”
Salvia uliginosa can be found flowering this time of year
by the Botanic Garden’s main pond.
Photo credit: Helen Roberts.
Many of the shrubby salvias are in this tender category. Froggie showed me Salvia confertiflora, an exotic late flowering species with beautiful fuzzy crimson inflorescences about 0.5m tall. This will be moved inside soon when the weather cools. Another that caught my eye in the pollinator beds located on one side of the main pond was Salvia uliginosa, a very tall plant with vibrant sky blue inflorescences that were buzzing with bumblebees.
I have to admit to an obsession with shrubby salvias, which started after many visits to the garden of plant guru Derry Watkins over the course of this summer. Her passion for these beautiful plants is contagious. They are an extraordinary group of plants that flower continuously from June until October and the flower colours are exquisite. The colours really pack a punch in terms of vividness. I purchased Salvia microphylla ‘Cerro Potosi’, which started producing vibrant magenta flowers back in June and is still putting on a show of pink in October. I plan to take cuttings of this to provide a back up plan in case I lose my original plant (I am going to risk leaving mine out over winter).
Toad Lilies (Tricyrtis macropoda). Photo credit: Helen Roberts.
In amongst the buzzing pollinator borders were the very pretty and delicate Toad Lilies (Tricyrtis macropoda). I watched bees visiting these inflorescences and collecting nectar by robbing it through the back of the flowers. The pink flowered society garlic (Tulbaghia violacea) and Japanese Anemone (Anemone hupehensis) were very subtle in hue combined with dazzling yellow Rudbeckia and deep purple drooping flowers of Agapanthus inapertus ‘Midnight Cascade’. Many of the hummingbird-pollinated plants were in flower including the pineapple relative Ochagavia litoralis and the terrestrial bromeliad Fascicularia pitcairnifolia. The latter, at present, is visually screaming, “Come pollinate me!” with the centre of the rosette turning an intense scarlet with a dense cluster of blue flowers tipped with bright yellow pollen.
Throughout the gardens, as I toured around with Froggie, there were interesting flowering species and the colours varied tremendously from vivid red and pink to deepest indigo. The flower forms were diverse too; delicate dangling umbels, ‘in your face’ discs of blooms, hooked and lipped nectar-rich inflorescences and some which were just plain weird looking. The gardens simply still looked stunning and I left knowing that it’s not yet time to put gardens to bed, there’s plenty more flowers to come.
More species that are flowering now in the garden include:
  • Abutilon sp. (Chinese lantern)
  • Agastache sp. (Giant hyssop)
  • Campsis sp. (Trumpet vine)
  • Caryopteris x clandonensis (Bluebeard)
  • Colchicum agrippinum
  • Commelina tuberosa Coelestis Group (Day flower or Sleeping Beauty)
  • Crinodendron hookerianum (Chilean lantern tree)
  • Erica tetralix (Cross-leaved heath)
  • Impatiens tinctoria
  • Lantana camara (Yellow sage)
  • Liriope muscari (Big blue lily turf)
  • Tropaeolum peregrinum (Canary creeper)
  • Verbena peruviana (Peruvian verbena)

The fascination of plants

Posted on by andy.winfield

By Helen Roberts

For the past three years, the University of Bristol Botanic Garden has hosted Fascination of Plants Day. The event is part of a much larger initiative launched under the umbrella of the European Plant Science Organisation (EPSO). The goal of the day is to get people interested in plants and share the significance of plant science in both the social and environmental arenas.

In 2013, the inaugural year of the event, a total of 689 institutions in 54 countries opened their doors to the public and talked about the wonder of plants. The activities carried out by each institution were extremely varied, but they were united in their celebration of plants. Here at the University of Bristol Botanic Garden, there was a focus on plant classification. In Russia, huge numbers of people attended guided tours on Siberian flora. In Nigeria, focus groups discussed possible partnerships between farmers, processors and scientists. In Norway, workshops were held for children to teach them how to grow their own vegetable gardens.

This year, Fascination of Plants Day was held on Sunday, 17th May. Students at the University of Bristol were in the garden discussing plant classification and research in the plants sciences. I met two final-year undergraduate students, Joshua Valverde and Will Perry, who were on hand discussing different topics within the plant sciences and fielding questions from the public.

What’s in a name?

Many queries related to binomial nomenclature or plant naming. In biology, the name of a plant (and indeed all living things) is divided into two parts; the first name – the genus –  defines a group that comes from a common ancestor and have some common features and the second part – the species – groups together organisms that can interbreed and produce fertile offspring. Together, the genus and species forms the Latin name. Poster information compiled by Joshua explained the history of plant classification.

Joshua explained how plant classification changed over the centuries.

“To begin with, Theophrastus, a Greek philosopher, was one of the first to document and characterise plants by their morphological features. After that, plants were classified according to their medicinal use. And then long and unwieldy Latin names were used based on the morphology of the particular plant. It wasn’t until the mid-1700s that Carl Linnaeus introduced the binominal system.”

Of course, taxonomists don’t always agree on which groupings some species belong to, nor on where groups should be placed in the broader contexts of plant evolution. Classification of plants originally relied on finding similarities in form and structure (morphology) between plants. “This was subject to error though because unrelated species may evolve similar structures as a result of living in similar habitats or in response to some other adaptive need. This is called convergent evolution,” explained Joshua.

However, molecular methods have helped resolve some of these disputes.

Gnetum gnemon, a member of the order Gnetales.
Photo courtesy of gbohne on Flickr CC.

“Morphological data suggested that the order Gnetales [what we now consider a group of ‘advanced’ conifers] was the closest living relative to the first flowering plant,” explained Joshua. “After molecular analyses of various genes, however, it is now thought that Amborella trichopoda [a shrub native to New Caledonia] is the closest living relative to the first flowering plant. Water lilies also seem to be quite an ancient lineage.”

Will informed me that visitors were particularly interested in how DNA sequencing over the last decade has advanced our understanding of the evolution of plants. He explained that a lot of this work has been carried out by the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group (APG) – an informal group of systematic botanists from around the world who are trying to reach a consensus on the taxonomic groupings of flowering plants. In fact, one of the phylogenetic trees produced by the APG is displayed on a visitor information board in the Botanic Garden.

The roots of a prestigious society

Additional information on plant classification included details about the Linnean Society of London. This society was founded in 1778 and named after the famous Swedish scientist Carl Linnaeus (1707-1778). The aims of the society are to “inspire and inform the public in all areas of natural history through its broad range of events and publications”.

The society maintains the vast animal and plant collections of Carl Linnaeus (the Linnean Herbarium holds some 14,300 specimens alone), looks after his personal library as well as having its own extensive research library. The society has a hugely prestigious past and it was at a society meeting in 1858 that Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace presented papers relating to the theory of evolution by natural selection! The society today continues to report on scientific advances and holds a number of events (including a student lecture series) throughout the year ranging from the genetic diversity of farmed animals to the future of plant conservation.

Opportunities for hands-on learning

Daisy pollen in oil under a light microscope. Image courtesy
of  microscopy-uk.org.uk/

For those members of the general public that enjoy hands-on learning, the Botanic Garden had some dissecting and light microscopes available to look at various plant structures. Under one microscope there was some daisy pollen, which I heard one member of the general public describe as resembling “those spiky looking naval mines”.

Fascination of Plants Day is held each May, so be sure to join us in the Garden for this worthwhile event next year! And don’t forget to come down to the Festival of Nature this weekend (13th-14th June) learn about pitcher plant research, soil and so much more!

Plants more resilient than animals through mass extinctions

Posted on by andy.winfield

By Nicola Temple

The fossil record suggests that a diversity of land plants had evolved by about 472 million years ago (mya). There is evidence to suggest that plants made the move onto land as much as 700 mya [1], placing them in the midst of the five largest extinction events to have shaped life on our planet.

Researchers from the University of Gothenburg released a study earlier this year showing that plants have generally been more resilient to these extinction events than animals. They looked at more than 20,000 plant fossils to see how these mass extinction events affected plant diversity [2].

Ferns and horsetails dominated the
landscape by the end of the Devonian.
Credit: Nicola Temple

They found, not unexpectedly, that each group of plants fared differently through each extinction event – with some doing better than others. Though plants might experience mass extinctions, the researchers concluded that plants also began to diversify again quickly after such events, so that more new species were being generated than were being lost.

“In the plant kingdom, mass extinction events can be seen as opportunities for turnover leading to renewed biodiversity,” said leading author Daniele Silvestro.

The big five

Scientists have identified five mass extinction events since land plants have evolved.

Ordovician – Silurian mass extinction (approximately 443 mya): This event wiped out approximately 85% of sea-dwelling creatures, such as trilobites. It has been hypothesised that a huge ice sheet in the southern hemisphere led to the alteration of climate patterns, a drop in the sea-level and a change in ocean chemistry.

Late Devonian (approximately 359 mya): This event is likely a series of smaller extinction events that happened over several million years, but the end result was a loss of 75% of all species on Earth. Changes in sea level, multiple asteroid impacts and new plants that were changing the soil chemistry have all been attributed to this period of extinction.

Permian (approximately 248 mya): It is estimated that 96% of all species were wiped out during this mass extinction. Marine creatures were badly affected and it is the only extinction thought to have had an impact on insects. Hypotheses as to what led to the demise of so many creatures have included combinations of asteroid impacts, volcanic activity, methane releases and decreased oxygen levels.

Triassic – Jurassic (approximately 200 mya): A mere fifty million years after the Permian extinction, about fifty percent of life was wiped out again. Plants seem to have been largely unaffected by this extinction event, but many of the marine reptiles were lost as well as large amphibians and cephalopod molluscs. Large scale volcanic activity and asteroid impacts have both been credited for these extinctions.

This dinosaur can still be spotted in the Evolutionary Dell
at the Botanic Garden! Credit: Nicola Temple

Cretaceous – Paleogene (approximately 65 mya): This extinction event is well known for the loss of the dinosaurs, pterosaurs and ammonites. The prevailing theory for this extinction is the impact of a large asteroid off the coast of Yucatán, Mexico and the subsequent fall-out effects.

While each of these mass extinction events meant the widespread loss of species, they also opened up opportunities for diversification and new species. Had the dinosaurs not gone extinct, for example, mammals would likely not have diversified, compromising our own lineage as humans. Flowering plants experienced extensive diversification after the Cretaceous – Paleogene event and they remain a dominant group today.

The key to resistence might be in duplicate DNA

The Wollemi Pine (Wollemia nobilis)
on display at the Botanic Garden has fossils
dating back 200 million years.
Credit: Nicola Temple

The majority of plants have undergone one or more duplication events where an exact copy of their entire genome is created. This is known as polyploidy – multiple copies of the same genome. Bread wheat, as an example, is hexaploid as it has six sets of chromosomes. Research has shown that one of these doubling events coincides with the Cretaceous – Paleogene mass extinction, approximately 65 million years ago[3].

An extra set of chromosomes could be quite convenient during a prolonged period of stress, such as a massive asteroid strike and its subsequent effects.  Polyploids might be better equipped to resist harmful mutations or perhaps take on mutations that offer a selective advantage under new conditions. Polyploidy plants also tend to be self-fertilising or asexual reproducers, which would be another advantage at a time when finding a partner for breeding could be limited.

Looking forward to a time of inevitable change

The theory that polyploidy confers an advantage during times of change can be witnessed in today’s extreme environments. There is evidence from the Arctic that polyploid plants are more successful than diploid plants at colonising habitats left by receding glaciers [3].

The Evolution of Land Plants Display at the Botanic Garden
(wrapped up for winter) is a walk through time.
Credit: Nicola Temple

Looking into extreme and changing habitats, such as the Arctic, as well as back into the fossil record can give us some indications of which plant groups may be more resilient to the changing climate we are currently experiencing.

You can take a walk through time in the University of Bristol Botanic Garden’s Evolution of Land Plants Display. There you will see living representatives from the groups of land plants that lived from the Cambrian to the Cretaceous, including unusual plants like Wollemi Pine (Wollemia nobilis) with fossils dating back 200 million years.

References:

[1] ‘First land plants and fungi changed Earth’s climate, paving the way for explosive evolution of land animals, new gene study suggests’, Penn State Science < http://science.psu.edu/news-and-events/2001-news/Hedges8-2001.htm>
[2] Silvestro D, Cascales-Miñana B, Bacon CD, Antonelli A (2015). Revisiting the origin and diversification of vascular plants through a comprehensive Bayesian analysis of the fossil record. New Phytologist (in press).
[3] Yong E (23 Mar 2009) ‘Extra genomes helped plants to survive extinction event that killed dinosaurs’, Not Exactly Rocket Science [blog] <http://scienceblogs.com/notrocketscience/2009/03/23/extra-genomes-helped-plants-to-survive-extinction-event-that/>

Local limestone quarry receives a special collection of plants from the University of Bristol Botanic Garden

Posted on by andy.winfield

By Helen Roberts


It’s a bitterly cold February morning and I’ve driven to the outskirts of the small village of Wick in South Gloucestershire to meet with Roland de Hauke. Roland is going to give me a tour of Wick Quarry and the local nature reserve. It is extremely claggy underfoot and parts of the road are submerged underwater, so I am extremely relieved when Roland shows me to his 4 x 4 vehicle in order to tour the vast 100-acre site.
First view of Wick Quarry. Credit: Helen Roberts.

Roland, a passionate botanist and conservationist, bought the quarry and nature reserve two years ago with the aim of restoring it with a mosaic of habitats to maximise biodiversity.
“I have always been interested in botany and conservation and I am fascinated by trees,” remarks Roland, “and I am particularly keen to introduce species of local provenance. In the past, a lot of quarry restoration has involved a broad-brush approach, with a view that what works well on one particular site will work for other sites too. This just simply isn’t the case and I want to change that perception.”
The quarry’s situation is extremely impressive with sheer rocky cliffs of loose exposed limestone and a huge quarry lake approximately 60 metres deep. It borders with the Wick Golden Valley Local Nature Reserve (also owned by Roland), which has locally important plants, including Viper’s Bugloss and Spleenwort, and wildlife, including a dozen or so different species of bats.  The reserve’s interesting geology has also earned it the designation of Regionally ImportantGeological and Geomorphological Site – with its excellent examples of stratification. The reserve is also part of a larger Site of Nature Conservation Interest called the ‘Wick Rocks and River Boyd’.
A second quarry lake where it is hoped floating reed beds 
will be established. Credit: Helen Roberts.

I was impressed by the quarry and as a landscape architect this was probably one of the most interesting sites I’d visited in terms of visual impact and biodiversity potential. I could imagine the site in 25 to 50 years time as a vital stepping-stone for local habitats as our landscape becomes further fragmented by development.

Propagating rare and endemic species

Within the University of Bristol Botanic Garden’s local plant collection are some special trees within the Sorbus genus, which are more commonly known as whitebeams, rowans and wild service trees. Two species, Bristol whitebeam (Sorbus bristoliensis) and Wilmott’s whitebeam (Sorbus wilmottiana), grow only in the region of the Avon Gorge.
The location of some of the plants donated by the
University of Bristol Botanic Garden. Credit: Helen Roberts.

The Garden maintains these rare endemic species within its collection as part of the ‘Global Strategy for Plant Conservation’. Threatened plant species are kept in ex situcollections so that they are available for recovery and restoration programmes.

The Botanic Garden has donated a number of Sorbus species to Roland in the hope that they may get established within his quarry and become a self supporting population, including S. aria, S. bristoliensis, S. eminens, S. anglica, and S. porrigentiformis. Both the Director of the Garden, Professor Simon Hiscock, and the Curator, Nick Wray, have given Roland advice on planting and species introduction. The donated plants were all propagated from wild plants in the Avon Gorge and Leigh Woods between 1996 and 1997 by the Garden staff.
“Actually, planting the donated plants has been an interesting and exciting task as accessibility is an issue and the rock faces are fairly steep and loose in places”, explains Roland.
Creating wetlands
The lake itself is problematic because its steep sides do not lend themselves to wetland creation; this is where Roland is concentrating his efforts over the next 5 years or so. He will make shallower shelved areas into the water with the idea of creating floating reed bed habitats, which will be planted in the spring. These reed bed habitats can support invertebrates and fish, which are food resources that will attract wetland birds.
Sheer quarry sides descend into the lake.
Credit: Helen Roberts.

“At the moment we are not seeing a lot of wetland birds using the quarry lakes for any long periods of time as there just isn’t the food available for them”, explains Roland. “After about a day or two, the water birds simply move on to find a better food resource and that’s where reed beds will provide a suitable habitat for [them] to stay for longer.”

The future of the quarry
Roland is also looking to develop huge areas of species-rich grassland and is seeking advice on species that will attract a diversity of invertebrates.
The site will likely be closed to the general public in order to reduce the disturbance by humans.  However, it will be open to specialist interest groups, including local schools, to help educate local communities about the importance of rare local species, illustrate effective quarry restoration and allow the long term monitoring and management of the site.
“This is a long term project that I’m really excited about and at public consultation meetings most people there have been genuinely excited about it too,” commented Roland. “I am very grateful to the University of Bristol Botanic Garden for the donated plants and look forward to working with them in future.”

Some like it hot

Posted on by andy.winfield

By Helen Roberts

With the dismal wet wintry weather prevailing in the UK at this time of year, most people look forward to the return of warm long days, evenings outside and picnics on the beach. Things can look a little dreary and dull in people’s gardens at the moment, before the arrival of spring and its profusion of bulbs and other spring flowers. The Mediterranean collection at the University of Bristol Botanic Gardens helps to remind me of summer sun and balmy places.

Maquis: scrubland vegetation of the Mediterranean

Maquis shrubland in Conca de Dalt of Catalonia, northeastern Spain.
Photo by Gustau Erill i Pinyot.
Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons 
The Mediterranean Basin of Europe and North Africa display shows examples from different vegetation biomes; the collection includes evergreen forest, maquis or macchie and garique. Many of the highly aromatic and fragrant plants are associated with maquis vegetation. The maquis biome, which often includes leathery broadleaves, evergreen shrubs and small trees, usually occurs on the lower slopes of mountains bordering the Mediterranean Sea.
The climate of the maquis biome is characterised by long dry summers and short mild wet winters, with low annual rainfall. Ocean currents and fog influence the temperature and limit the growing season. The plants that grow here cope with the very hot summers by entering a slow growth period or dormant phase so they can resist long periods of drought.
Plant defences in this harsh environment are numerous. Many shrubs and low growing vegetation have thick tough leathery leaves, which reduce water loss but also deter hungry herbivores from grazing. Many plants contain volatile organic compounds (VOCs). These chemicals help facilitate interactions between plants and the environment – from attracting pollinators and seed dispensers to warding off pathogens, parasites and herbivores. When a plant is under attack from a herbivore, for example, it will release a chemical cocktail of VOCs, some of which have been found to attract natural predators of the herbivores. VOCs are also good at leaching into surrounding soil and so will deter the growth of other plants.
Plants containing VOCs are often very flammable, which is partly why areas of maquis are prone to wild fires.

Pyrophytes need a little fire in their lifecycle

Montpelier cistus (Cistus monspeliensis).
Photo by Jean-Pol GRANDMONT
via Wikimedia Commons
Many of the plants in the maquis biomes are pyrophytes (fire loving plants) and require wild fires for reproduction, recycling of nutrients and removal of dead vegetation. Pyrophytes can be classed as active or passive. Active pyrophytes actually encourage fires as they often require fire in order to reproduce. Passive pyrophytes resist the effects of fires.
An active pyrophyte growing in the University of Bristol Botanic Garden maquis biome is Cistus monspeliensis, commonly known as the Montpelier cistus or rock rose. When a fire starts, Cistushas evolved to burn. This combustible conclusion to the adult plant helps destroy competing plants near to it. However, unlike its competitors, the fire will mechanically rupture the seeds of Cistus and the smoke and heat will trigger germination of the next generation. The Cistus seedlings have the advantage of beginning life in a competitor-free environment.
A closed cone and foliage of Pinus pinea.
 Licensed under CC BY-SA 2.5 es via Wikimedia Commons 
Pinus pinea (the stone pine) is also in the Botanic Garden’s collection and it is a passive pyrophyte. It has a thick bark with high moisture content to help it resist fire. Its hard-coated fire resistant cones open when exposed to high temperatures. This is particularly useful in the harvest of the desirable seeds, known to many of us as pine nuts. As the tree grows, it self-prunes the lower branches, which helps prevent the fire travelling at ground level from jumping up into the canopy and potentially destroying the tree.
Some species spring back from fire events by sprouting new growth from the old. There are two such sprouter species in the Botanic Garden’s collection. The carob tree (Ceratonia siliqua) re-sprouts from epicormicbuds that lie dormant beneath the bark. These buds are normally suppressed by hormones produced by active shoots, but after a fire event and the destruction of the foliage, the buds are activated. Erica arborea (tree heath) re-sprouts from root crowns so is known as a below ground sprouter. It produces seed in the first post-fire summer.
Fire adapted plants of the maquis biome are only a handful of those plants making up the Garden’s Mediterranean collection. The collection also includes plants (some of which are also pyrophytes) from the southwestern tip of South Africa and displays are also under development from the Western andSouthern Australian, Chilean and Californian Mediterranean climate regions.
The half hardy plants of the Mediterranean collection are planted out in each respective biome in the summer, whilst more tender plants are protected from our cooler Bristol temperatures in the warm temperate and cool zones of the glasshouses. The outdoor collection sits on a south facing rocky bank to maximise the amount of sun and aid drainage. The path meanders through the collection allowing visitors to appreciate the appearance and fragrances of the different plants. These are all good things to look forward to in the summer months, but meanwhile if you have the chance to warm yourself in front of a crackling fire, think of those volatile fire-loving plants! 

A walk through the mendips

Posted on by andy.winfield

By Helen Roberts

A few weeks ago our family, had a great day out walking on the Mendip Hills. We set off in autumn sunshine, through pretty deciduous woodland, to an Iron Age hill fort called Dolebury Warren – an upland area of calcareous grassland. Having lived on the edge of the Mendips during my childhood, I am always keen to show my children where I used to explore as a youngster.
Part of Cheddar Gorge, Somerset, England, seen from a
light aircraft. Photo by Adrian Pingstone (1975).
The Mendips are a range of mainly carboniferous limestone hills comprised of at least four convex fold structures formed between 363 and 325 million years ago, during the end of the Carboniferous Period. Weathering of the limestone has resulted in features including gorges, dry valleys, screes and swallets (sink-holes) and incorporates the famous Cheddar Gorge and Burrington Combe, each with extensive cave systems. The area also has interesting landscape characteristics like limestone pavements and other karst structures.
The geology of the Mendips makes for interesting ecological communities and consists of large areas of open calcareous grassland with many rare flowering plants. For instance, Dolebury Warren owned by the National Trust and managed by Avon Wildlife Trust, sits within the Mendip Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and is a Site of Special Scientific Interest due to its important limestone flower communities. These flower communities attract up to 70% of all British butterfly species. Dolebury Warren has a gradation of communities from species rich calcareous grassland, through acid grassland to limestone heathland, with large areas of mixed scrub.
Cheddar Pink (Dianthus gratianopolitanus).
Photo by Paul Harvey, via Wikimedia Commons
The charity Plantlife has identified the Mendips as an Important Plant Area (IPA), which is an area of landscape that has very high botanical importance. Some plant species found on the Mendips are found nowhere else. Due to factors such as over grazing, poor land management, scrub encroachment and agricultural intensification, these plants are declining in numbers and some are threatened with extinction. The University of Bristol Botanic Gardenhas a local flora and rare native plant collection, which includes a sub-collection from the Mendip Hills, Limestone Cliffs and Coastal Islands. The collection was developed to help grow and interpret some of the rare and threatened plant species found in these habitats. The collection represents an important habitat and phytogeographic display and is helping meet the objectives of the ‘Global Strategy forPlant Conservation’.

Rare plants of the Mendips 


One of the Mendip plants in the Botanic Garden’s collection is the Cheddar Pink (Dianthus gratianopolitanus). This is a very pretty scented pink flower that grows in a few places on the Mendips but mostly at the original site of Cheddar Gorge. This plant was originally discovered about 300 years ago and is considered the pride of Somerset and was voted the County Flower. It grows best in rock crevices, high on the limestone crags of the Gorge, and can be seen in June and July using binoculars to search patches of colour visible on the cliffs, just above the road.
Also growing at the Gardens is the interestingly named Starved Sedge (Carex depauperata). This is an exceptionally endangered plant that is only found in one local area – in the woods and on a hedge bank near the small town of Axbridge. This is one of only two sites in the whole of the UK. Fifteen years ago, Starved Sedge had declined to such an extent that there was only one plant in the whole of Britain. As appearances go, it’s not much to look at. It’s a tussocky plant with trailing leaves and gigantic seeds and can easily be mistaken for some common woodland grasses. A reintroduction programme has improved the status of this plant by using cuttings and seed collecting to re-establish it at other sites in the UK.
The University Botanic Garden are also helping to preserve another plant at high risk of extinction and classed as nationally rare, known as Somerset Hair-grass (Koeleria vallesiana). Again, this is a fairly innocuous grass restricted to the Mendip Hills with very slow spreading habit. The Bristol Botanic Garden’s specimens were collected from Brean Down, which is the most westerly part of the Mendip Hills, as well as the interesting tiny islands of Steep Holm and Flat Holm.
Brean Down is an outstanding example of calcareous grassland and supports endemic plant communities that provide for many important insect communities. Other important plant species growing at Brean Down and now growing at Bristol Botanic Gardens include the White Rockrose (Helianthemum appenninum). This is an attractive white flowered perennial sub shrub, which frequently grows on southern slopes. White Rockrose, Somerset Hair-grass and Dwarf Sedge (Carex humilis) are all particularly at risk due to scrub colonization. This highlights the importance of grazing to maintain grassland habitats. The National Trust introduced grazing by long horned White Park Cattle and British WhiteCattle (feral goats are already on Brean Down) to help keep the grass short and scrub species controlled. 
The rarity of the plants found on the Mendip Hills highlights how important collections, such as those held at the University Botanic Garden, are for ensuring the survival of plants teetering on the brink of extinction. Equivalent to a botanical savings account, these collections help ensure that if plant species are lost, they can be reintroduced back into the wild.

Fruit: the good, the bad and the ugly

Posted on by andy.winfield

By Helen Roberts



Autumn is my favourite season. I love the colours, cooling temperatures and crispness of the air in the morning. One of the things I like most, however, is harvesting autumn fruit to use in cooking, baking and jams. So far, this autumn I have picked bucketfuls of blackberries, autumn raspberries, damsons, plums, apples, pears, quince, crabapples, rosehips and sloes.
It has been a wonderful harvest and my cupboards, freezer and larder are full of these delicious fruits as cakes, jams, jellies, butters or just shoved in the freezer to be used in the depths of winter. These are all fairly common and useful autumn fruits to most of us in the UK, but as I was poking about in my garden the other day I noticed quite an unusual fruit growing.
The fruit of chocolate vine (Akebia quinata).
Photo credit: Helen Roberts.
The fruit belongs to Akebia quinata,commonly known as chocolate vine – a vigorous climber that is growing really well in my garden. I have two plants growing up a north facing wall and a west-facing wall respectively and they are more or less planted in what I can only describe as gravel. They have always been strong growers despite neglect, but they have never produced fruit.
Last winter I decided to prune it back really hard with some hand shears as it was getting unruly. I thought I may have been too severe and they may not make it, but this summer they produced a mass of flowers and early autumn produced some lovely large weird sausage shaped fruit.
The plant is native to Japan, China and Korea. The sweet but insipid fruit pulp can be eaten, while the rind of the fruit is used like a vegetable in cooking – often stuffed with minced meat and deep fried. The leaves are used as a tea infusion.
Inspired by the weird and wonderful fruit in my garden, I ventured to the Botanic Gardens for a tour with botanical horticulturist, Andy Winfield. I told Andy I wanted to see some unusual fruit and seeds.

The Garden’s weird and wonderful fruit

The first plants on the tour, which were listed at the welcome hut of current things to see, were sunflowers. The variety, ‘Giant’, produced a rather wonderful forest that rose a couple of metres above us. My sons have grown this variety but the ones in the Garden are colossal by comparison.
Cape gooseberry (Physalis peruviana) fruit is wrapped in
a papery calyx. Photo credit: Helen Roberts.
In the same bed were two species of Physalis, a genus in the nightshade family (Solanaceae). Physalis philadelphica, or the tomatillo, bears small green-purple fruit and are a staple of Mexican cuisine in dishes such as salsa verde. I tried one and it tasted a bit like a very sweet tomato – I wasn’t enamoured, but I think they are better cooked. Physalis peruviana, the Cape gooseberry, on the other hand has a wonderful sweet pineapple-like flavour. The fruit is smaller than the tomatillo, bright orange in colour, with lots of little seeds inside. Just like the tomatillo, the fruit is enclosed in an inflated papery calyx.
Sweet chestnut (Castanea sativa).
Photo credit: Helen Roberts.
Walking towards the hops in the western herb garden we walked past a fairly young Sweet Chestnut tree (Castanea sativa), which had dropped numerous spiky chestnuts, many of which had split to reveal the lovely glossy brown nuts inside. These nuts are roasted in many different countries and used to make stuffings for meat or vegetables. I have a bit of a sweet tooth so I am very fond of the use of these nuts in confections, puddings, desserts and cakes, my favourites being crème de marron and marrons glacés. Chestnuts used to be the food of the poor and were used by peasants as a staple instead of grains in parts of southwest France and parts of Italy. In France the chestnut tree is often referred to as l’arbre à pain, or the ‘bread tree’ as the chestnuts were ground into flour. The trees can grow to an impressive 20-35 metres in height with a 2 metre diameter trunk.

The cocoa tree’s tiny flowers are clustered
directly on the trunk. Photo credit: Helen Roberts.
My tour continued into the glasshouses to look at some economically important plants as well as others that are simply weird and wonderful looking. The cocoa tree, Theobroma cacao, was our first stop – after all, who could pass on chocolate? This smallish tree with large glossy green leaves lives in the Garden’s tropical glasshouse and is a native of central and South America. At first glance it’s quite unassuming, but look a bit closer and you can see the distinctive shape of the cocoa pod. I was amazed by the size of the tiny cream flowers that grow in clusters directly on the trunk – a term known as cauliflory – and that these tiny flowers can produce such a large fruit. The pod contains 20-60 seeds within a white pulp, which are the main ingredient of chocolate.
The history of cacao dates back to the early formative period (1900-900 BC) when it was considered a very important part of Mesoamerican culture. The beans constituted both a ritual beverage and a major currency system in pre-Columbian Mesoamerican civilisations.
“We had a volunteer working at the gardens who used to work for J S Fry & Sons – a chocolate manufacturer in Bristol,” revealed Andy. “He said you can make about five bars of chocolate from one pod!”

The citrus known as Buddha’s hand (Citrus medica var. digitata).
Photo credit: Helen Roberts.
The tropical glasshouse also houses a weird looking citrus called ‘Buddha’s Hand’, Citrus medica var. digitata, which is cultivated in Japan and China. It looks like a small wizened citron with fingers. The fleshy peel can be steamed and candied fresh or it can be used for its highly aromatic and fragrant zest. The fruit has been an offering in Buddhist temples for a long time.
After the glasshouses, Andy took me to the pond where there is a rather ancient looking medlar (Mespilus germanica) tree, laden with fruit. I see this tree a lot in the various gardens I visit, but I have never used the fruit for anything.
 

Fruits of the medlar tree (mespilus germanica).
Photo credit: Helen Roberts.

“The fruit needs to be ‘bletted’,” said Andy, “which is when the fruit is browned by rot after a frost or naturally in storage over time. Then it can be eaten raw or used to make desserts, jelly, medlar cheese [akin to lemon curd] and wine.”
I recall my mother making medlar jelly, but I cannot remember ever tasting it. Perhaps I will try making something of the medlars after our first frost. My tour inspired thoughts of jam making sessions with some new and exotic fruits. There are lots of weird and wonderful fruits at the Botanic Garden right now – definitely worth a visit – who knows how it will inspire you?!

Bringing the Levels to the Garden

Posted on by andy.winfield
If you’ve been to the Botanic Garden recently, you may have noticed an area by the pond that has been sectioned off with some ropes. This is the future home of the Somerset Levels and Moors display at the University of Bristol Botanic Garden.  It is one of the mini-habitats of areas that are found here in the West Country that the Garden is replicating as part of its display of rare and threatened plants.
The Somerset Levels run from the foot of the Mendip Hills through to the first rising of the Quantock Hills and occupy an area of about 150,000 acres. The Levels are an interesting habitat, which has formed as a consequence of some rather unique geological features as well as hundreds of years of human modification; they support a rich diversity of species and as a result are of national and international importance.

I had an opportunity to speak with both Andy Windfield, a botanical horticulturist at the Garden, and Nick Wray, the Curator, about the Levels display that’s being constructed and there is an incredible amount of thought and work that goes into it. It’s not simply a matter of taking some of the local species and plunking them down in the garden, Nick and the Garden staff are taking great care to replicate some of the natural processes, such as the seasonal rise and fall of water levels, that make the Somerset Levels such a unique habitat.  

What makes the Levels unique?

The Somerset Levels are a sedge-peat moor, which is very distinct from a sphagnum moss bog that you normally associate with upland areas in the UK or low-lying areas where there is high rainfall and little drainage. Whilst there are some sphagnum mosses on the Levels, it’s mainly sedges and grasses that grow there and this produces a different structure of peat.
Below the peat is an impermeable layer of clay that used to be the bed of a shallow sea. In fact, until the early part of the Middle Ages, large parts of the Levels were still part of an inland sea.  However, local people began to drain the area, creating dykes and ditches to lower the water level.
The Levels are still a catchment for the surrounding hills, which are comprised of primarily carboniferous limestone. This is very hard limestone and it’s hard to weather, making the groundwater running into the Somerset Levels alkaline. This is a unique situation because peat bogs are normally associated with very acidic water, yet the Levels are a sedge peat where the groundwater can be alkaline.

So, how do you replicate all this in the Botanic Garden?

First, Andy takes me out to the pond and we are standing near the rock garden – an area a child visiting the Garden once called ‘wiggly water’ and the name has stuck with all the staff here.  He explains that in 2005, when the Garden moved to this location, one of the first things they did was mark out this main pool.
“Nick started explaining what this was going to be,” explained Andy. “The main pool was constructed with the Levels display already in mind, with this side of the pond 5cm lower than the other edges. So, when the water overflows in the pond it runs down into this display area.”
The Somerset Levels display, with the large pond in the
background, has to settle before planting can begin.
 At the base of the display, they’ve put in a liner with a depth of about 30cm to simulate the impermeable clay bed. This replicates one of the key features of the Somerset Levels – the seasonal rise and fall of the water level.  In the su

mmer this display area will be allowed to dry out, but the liner below will create a reservoir below.

On top of the liner, they’ve put in truckloads of waste sedge peat (a bi-product from a former industry in Somerset). “It took staff and volunteers lots of time to move it in,” says Andy. “We’re now letting this sink and we’ll likely need to add more peat on top before it’s ready to be planted out.”
The rock garden around the wiggly water is comprised of carboniferous limestone and is planted with rare and threatened native plants of the Mendip Hills. It is not a mere coincidence that the Levels display sits adjacent. Nick explains, “Just as in nature the Mendip Hills are next to the Somerset Levels, here at the Botanic Garden the Mendip Hills are next to the Somerset Levels.”

Planting out the Levels

Many of the plants that the Garden will replicate in this area are grasses and sedges and small herbs. There are some shrubby species also and Nick points out a bog myrtle by the pond that was collected for the Garden in the 1970s from Shapwick. It has an incredible smell and not surprising as it comes from the same family as cloves, allspice and eucalyptus (Myrtaceae). Bog myrtle creeps slowly through the peaty soils and creates dense thickets in these peaty soils, so this will be one of the plants included in the display.
Nick also hopes to have a small area of some carnivorous plants because the round-leaved sundew (Drosera rotundifolia) grows in the Somerset Levels, as does the common bladderwort (Utricularia vulgaris). There will also be some ferns such as the royal fern (Osmunda regalis), which is a fantastic foliage plant that grows at the edges of the ditches in the Somerset Levels,
Some of the plants will be sown directly into the peat area once it has settled and been topped up, while others will be sown in little pots or plugs, grown on and then planted out. All seed and plantlet collection is being done with the permission of Natural England and Andy and Nick will be doing the collections themselves.
“One of the exciting plants we’ll be getting in here is a population of marsh orchids,” says Nick. “We already have those marsh orchids growing in our nursery and they’ve been raised from seed from an original collection back in the 1970s of southern marsh orchids. So we want a large population of deep pink and purple orchids.”
Once mature, the main flowering interest in the display will be late June and early July after which it will go to seed and then be cut in August to tidy it up. Then it will be allowed to be wet and grow slowly through the winter months.
Planted in the ordinary soil around the peat area, there will be species of willows, which are common to the area, including the almond willow (Salix triandra), the goat willow (Salix caprea) and, if there’s room, the common osier (Salix viminalis)> These will be coppiced so they don’t get too big.

The sweet track

The sweet track is a very ancient pathway that runs across the Somerset Levels – built in the early Bronze Age.  It consisted of posts of timber pushed into the soft peaty earth above the water with horizontal boards of split timber fixed to them. It created a causeway about 3-4 ft above the water that enabled people to walk easily regardless of the water level.
The timbers, which were embedded into the peat, which is anaerobic, didn’t rot and so the nearly 4,000 year old relics were discovered in the 1970s and at the time were considered the oldest timber trackway in Northern Europe. Nick has contemplated trying to incorporate the sweet track into the Levels display in the Garden as well.
“I would like to find out more about what the timber species were,” said Nick, “and maybe have those species growing in our display, perhaps with a sculptural representation of the sweet track.”
I look forward to seeing the display progress over the next year as the staff and volunteers bring the Somerset Levels to life here in the Botanic Garden.