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Conifer Ex-situ Conservation
Conifer Ex-situ Conservation
Ex-situ conservation programmes are usually additional to in-situ measures and may also be undertaken as a precautionary measure before species go extinct in the wild. Ex-situ conservation of plants may involve a range a methods, including seed…
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Conservation Genetics
Conservation Genetics
Our conservation genetics research focuses on rare, threatened and important plant species. We use a combination of genetic and ecological methods to help answer key ecological questions and inform conservation and management decisions. The aim of…
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Loans Policy
Loans Policy
The Herbarium at RBGE will only consider loans from recognised institutes and not from individuals. All loan requests should come from the Curator or Director of the researcher’s institute. A pdf copy of this letter can be sent by email…
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History of Collectors in the Herbarium
Collectors
There are over 14,000 collectors represented in the herbarium at RBGE. Some of these collectors have made a significant impact on the collections, either by the number of specimens or by the number of new species they collected. These collectors…
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Cultivated Herbarium
Cultivated Herbarium
The cultivated herbarium helps facilitate ‘a gold standard’ reference collection within RBGE. Not only do these cultivated specimens act as an identification reference to the living collection i.e. where plant material has been requested for…
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Ferns and Allies
Ferns
The Ferns & Fern Allies include Ferns, horsetails, clubmosses, spikemosses and quillworts. They are an ancient group, with fossil evidence of members from 400 million years ago. Around 90% of current diversity in this group is accounted for by…
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Gymnosperms
Gymnosperms
The gymnosperms, which include cycads, ginkgos, and conifers (pines, spruces, firs, cypresses, and larches) are an ancient lineage of plants, dating back at least 300 million years - today they can be found on all continents except Antarctica. The…
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Silica Dried Collection
Silica Dried Collection
A recent addition to the collections at RBGE is the material which has been dried in silica to preserve the DNA for later extraction and sequencing. This technique is commonly used for plant material thanks to its effectiveness in preserving the…
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Specimen Preparation and Care
Specimen Preparation & Care
We add thousands of new plant specimens to the Herbarium collection every year. In addition to specimens collected on RBGE expeditions, we receive gifts and exchanges from other herbaria, and specimens from the RBGE research plant collections. Our…
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Integrated Pest Management
Integrated Pest Management
Herbarium Beetle (Trogoderma angustum) and Biscuit Beetle (Stegobium paniceum) have the potential to cause serious damage to our herbarium collections if left unchecked. In the past, pest management in the Herbarium often involved regular use of…
Botanics Recommends
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