Category Archives: Species

Tillandsia usneoides Spanish Moss

Lacking ideas this Movember? Why not take inspiration from Spanish Moss and the great Spanish explorer Hernando De Soto, from whom the plant was thought to originate. Well at least as the legend goes… Apparently Hernando De Soto pursued an Indian maiden through the forest … Continue reading

Posted in Americas, Learning and Teaching, Neotropics, Species, Students | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Starfruit: food, healer, domestic cleaner and much more

Averrhoa carambola L., the starfruit is one of those strange and unique products that come from the east of Asia, with its funny shape and curious flavours, which you can love or hate, it is beggining to appear broadly in … Continue reading

Posted in Africa, Asia, Learning and Teaching, Palaeotropics, Species, Students | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Tropical fruit in flower – Pineapple and Banana

Slightly over one year from planting out our Dwarf Cavendish banana is now in full bloom and the female flowers are already beginning to develop their distinct bunches of fruit.  You can see the plant as it looked in September … Continue reading

Posted in Crops, Monocots, Neotropics | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Community Open Event May 2013

On Monday 20th May we held what might be considered the official opening of the Tropical Biodiversity Glasshouse.  The University of Reading community open event provided a means for both the Harris Garden and our greenhouse to be shown to … Continue reading

Posted in Annual Fund, Collaborators, Crops, Hands-on, Meeting, People, Staff, Students, Water Plants | Leave a comment

Mexican Butterworts – Pinguicula

The latest arrivals to the tropical greenhouse are a set of Pinguicula species originating in Mexico and some hybrids and cultivars derived from them. These add to the plants of Pinguicula laueana we have been growing there for the past … Continue reading

Posted in Americas, Carnivorous Plants, Countries, Low Nutrient Environments, Mexico | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Cyatheaceae: The Scaly Tree Ferns

This gallery contains 4 photos.

Commonly known as the scaly tree ferns, Cyatheaceae are a clade of ca. 600 plant species within a group of plants known as the monilophytes or ferns (Smith et al. 2006). All ferns are spore-bearing and share a highly distinctive … Continue reading

More Galleries | Leave a comment

The Zebra Danios (Danio rerio) have produced babies

A group of six Zebra Danios (Danio rerio) have been living in the Tropical Greenhouse pond for several months.  Two weeks ago we added some new waterlilies to the pond and top dressed their pots with coarse gravel.  This seems … Continue reading

Posted in Asia, Fish, Integrated Pest Management, Pond, Species | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Piperaceae – the Pepper family

Introducing Piperaceae Piperaceae is commonly known as the pepper family.  The name Piperaceae comes from the Sanskrit ‘pippali’ which also gave rise to the Greek ‘peperi’, the Latin ‘piper’ and the English ‘pepper’. Originally this referred to Piper longum, the … Continue reading

Posted in Crops, Palaeotropics, Species | 1 Comment

Cannaceae

Cannaceae is one of the monocot families that is easy to recognize. this family is represented by one genus, which is Canna, and 10 species. This family is one of the plants with a long history of human cultivation. Records that go back to … Continue reading

Posted in Americas, Asia, Australia, Crops, Monocots, Species | 1 Comment

Eichhornia crassipes – The ‘Jekyll and Hyde’ of the freshwater world.

Eichhornia crassipes (Water Hyacinth) has a relatively ambivalent place in freshwater habitats. It has become a serious invasive species in many countries, and is one of the world’s most noxious aquatic weeds (Patel, 2012), yet it has been found to … Continue reading

Posted in Africa, Americas, Asia, Neotropics, Pond, Water Plants | Tagged , , , , , | 4 Comments