Botany in the Garden


Our spring conference at the National Botanic Garden of Wales was a great success. We had over 20 presentations outlining the Angiosperm Phylogeny Classification, DNA barcoding projects, plant name issues, developing accessioning policies and the practical implications of all these on managing plant collections.

More than 50 people attended the conference. After presentations on the development of modern plant classification according to the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group (APG) of authors, there were talks on DNA-barcoding research in relation to plant collections, studies of the Welsh flora and plant conservation genetics. Timothy Walker described how an accession policy had been created for the University of Oxford Botanic Garden. John David spoke about managing and communicating changes to plant names; and David Rae told us about how the change to APG II was made in the herbarium and living collections at the gardens of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh.

A session on order and family beds included talks on APG layouts at botanic gardens in Bristol, Oxford, Kew, Glasnevin and NBG Wales; as well as on the Systematic Beds at Cambridge; and evolution gardens at Dundee, Bristol and West Dulwich station. The conference also included talks on sharing horticultural information from living collections, and managing plant health risks from Phytopthora ramorum and P. kernoviae.

Our thanks to Kevin Lamb, Jess Gould and Laura Davies at the National Botanic Garden of Wales for hosting this conference for PlantNetwork. We are grateful to Fitzpatrick Woolmer Design & Publishing, Sheen Botanical Labels and 908 Ltd for donations.