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  • Article

Hunting lost plants in botanical collections

A bark specimen at Kew recalls the story of a South American man who harvested the most potent source of the only effective malaria treatment available in the late 1800s. Killed for his work and forgotten by history, Manuel Mamani was a victim of the colonial juggernaut.

  • Article

Foraging for a taste of the past

Follow tips from a professional forager to recreate delicious 18th-century recipes from plants growing wild in parks and on urban wasteland.

  • Article

How Indigenous insight inspires sustainable science

The forest of the Amazon Basin is inextricably bound up with the lives of the Indigenous peoples living there. Find out how they feel about the forest, use what it provides, and try to protect it from aggressive commercial exploitation.

  • Article

On nature cures and taking the waters

When chilly outdoor swims began to chip away at her depression, Jessica J Lee was drawn to a closer study of the complex natural world around her.

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Images

  • Two climbing plants: leafy stems. Watercolour.
  • The movements and habits of climbing plants / by Charles Darwin, F.R.S.
  • Screwpines (Pandanus species) covered with climbing plants, surrounded by lush tropical vegetation. Wood engraving, c. 1867, after C. Whymper.
  • Thunbergia alata Sims Acanthaceae. Black-eyed Susan. Tender, perennial herbaceous climbing plant. Distribution: East Africa. Named for Carl Peter (Pehr or Per) Thunberg (1743-1828), doctor, botanist, student of Linnaeus who collected plants in Japan, Sri Lanka and South Africa. He published Flora Japonica (1784)
  • A climbing leguminous plant: leafy stem with pods. Watercolour.
  • A climbing leguminous plant: leafy stem with pods. Watercolour.
  • A climbing leguminous plant: leafy stem with pods. Watercolour.
  • A climbing plant, possibly in the Cucurbitaceae family: flowering stem. Watercolour.
  • A man climbing a coconut palm (Cocos nucifera L.) which stands by a banana plant (Musa sp.), in a waterside setting in Bombay, India. Engraving by J. Shury after J. Forbes, 1768.
  • Gloriosa superba L. Colchicaceae Gloriosa lily. Gloriosa rothschildiana is now a synonym. Climbing plant. Distribution: Southern Africa to Asia. National flower of Zimbabwe, state flower of Tamil Nadu. Contains colchicine which is poisonous, teratogenic and used for treating gout, Familial Mediterranean fever and Behcet's disease. Its toxicity limits its use as a anti-cancer agent. Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.
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