MSc Biodiversity and Taxonomy of Plants (RBGE)

We organised a successful workshop on flower morphology and angiosperm diversification in Berlin in 2023 and are organising a second version on 3-14 June 2024.
This course aims to provide a firm basis of flower morphology and evolution in the context of the most recent molecular phylogeny.

Please spread the news.

A living fossil
A female cone of Wollemia nobilis (wollemi pine). This plant was discovered in 1994 in a small grove in Wollemia National Park in Australia. Before then it had only been found as fossil remains dating back 200 million years. The conifer conservation program at RBGE has worked on protecting this critically endangered species.
Photo taken during the conifer masters walk around looking at gymnosperm diversity

The MSc course went for the first time on a field trip to Colombia, that was organised in collaboration with colleagues of the Botanical Garden of Bogota and the University of Rosario in Bogota. The trip made it possible to collect a large number of specimens and teach the students about the great diversity of the Colombian flora. We visited three sites, one in limestone lowland forest at 300m, and two in submontane forest at 2000m, allowing a comparison of different habitats. A short visit to the Parano above 3000m revealed a fascinating new world of plants. To encounter such a diversity of plants and animals, often close to civilisation and during a relatively short visit, was amazing.

Plant and pollinator workshop: http://www.field-studies-council.org/individuals-and-families/courses/2017/mi-%281%29/biological-monitoring-plants-and-pollinators-66203.aspx

Biological Monitoring: Plants and Pollinators - 66203 - FSC Field Studies council (FSC) is a registered charity committed to helping people of all ages understand and be inspired by the natural world.

Nice blog of Camila Quinteros Penafiel (MSc 2016) based on her dissertation "The Flora of Fair Isle". It is not all grey and wet up north!
http://fair-isle.blogspot.co.uk/2016/11/the-flora-of-fair-isle-msc-research.html?spref=fb

"The Flora of Fair Isle" - MSc research project by Camila Quinteros Fair Isle Sea Pinks Thrift ( Armeria maritima ), is found in every monad (1 km square) of Fair Isle and across an extremely diverse ran...

Congratulations to Bryony Smart (MSc 2013-14), who has started her new job as botanist at Pha Tad Ke Botanical Garden in Laos.

The garden is young and in the process of growing.
Bryony is currently working on various avenues to get together all the money to make things happen. As part of this they have put together a crowd funding campaign to raise money for a ethno-botanical garden.

Here’s the link to the campaign: https://igg.me/at/PTKBotanical

Hidden Treasures of Laos Help protect the traditional knowledge of Lao's, understudied and extremely rich, bio-diversity. | Crowdfunding is a democratic way to support the fundraising needs of your community. Make a contribution today!

The new year has started in earnest and we benefit from the indian summer here in Edinburgh.
There are 19 students this year, sampled from 10 countries all over the world, which makes the course highly international.
The course attracts students with a genuine interest in plants and the expertise they gain in Edinburgh makes them valuable players in plant conservation and in raising awareness about the importance of plants.

For those interested. There is a new excursion flora of Italy written by a friend of mine.
Louis

Field course 2015 in Belize

We had a tremendous fieldtrip with 27 people including 9 MSc students, 10 NERC funded PhD students, 2 Belizean students, and 6 leaders, visiting three sites (Las Cuevas in the Chiquibul forest, Belize Botanic Garden, and Hillbank Research Station run by the Program for Belize. Adventurous journeys to reach the remotest places on dirt roads, encounters with creepy crawleys, wading through wet savannah with boots filled with water, beautiful flowers and wildlife, and above all a great teamwork and enthusiastic students!

Questionnaire for past MSc students:

Dear former MSc students,

In case I did not reach you by email I am contacting you through facebook.
I would very much appreciate if you could fill in the attached questionnaire. It takes little time but it is tremendously important for us to move the course forward.

Wishing you all the best for the future.

Kind regards

Louis

http://goo.gl/oYMeAI

MSc Biodiversity and Taxonomy of Plants - review questionnaire As an alumnus of the MSc, we'd love to hear from you - where you are and what you are doing, as well as your advice on a few things about the MSc. Many thanks in advance for filling out this form - it should only take about 5 minutes and will be a great help to develop the course over the coming yea…

An interesting blog for anyone interested in flowers with comments on flowers and flowering. I joined the editorial board recently and posted a discussion on a recently published paper: http://floweringhighlights.org/

FLOWERING HIGHLIGHTS (by blogfnl)

A former MSc student, Steven Sylvester is bringing it far on the top of the Andes. Congratulations to him!
Read his story on:
http://www.leverhulme.ac.uk/news/news_item.cfm/newsid/18/newsid/151

News item - The Leverhulme Trust It has been an exciting 15 months in Latin America, filled with stories of challenging mountain ascents and new botanical discoveries. My PhD study is focused on trying to derive the potential natural vegetation of the Andean high altitude grasslands known as ‘puna’ which have been burnt and grazed ...