About Alastair Culham
A professional botanist and biologist with an interest in promoting biological knowledge and awareness to all.
A new round of BSc research projects have just started for 2014/15 academic year. Richard Higgins will be working with Paul Hatcher and Alastair Culham on the monitoring and management of Mealy bug in the tropical glasshouse.
The Museum of English Rural Life held its annual Village Fete on Saturday 31st May. The Herbarium was represented in the form of a tropical food plants display showing some of the plants we grow in our tropical glasshouse. The … Continue reading →
Standing amongst the dense foliage of large exotic plants with the smells of damp earth and fragrant leaves around me, the sun cooking the air, I tried to explain to a group of pupils from Highwood Primary School why plants … Continue reading →
The butterworts, known botanically as Pinguicula, are a varied and widespread genus. British botanists are used to seeing two species growing in very wet areas however in Mexico many of the butterworts grow in seasonally arid places and have thick … Continue reading →
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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
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Tagged Ananas comosus, banana, banana plant, Bromeliaceae, bromeliad, flowering, Musa, Musaceae, pineapple, Tropical Crops, tropical fruit
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On Wednesday 16th October the results of the Reading in Bloom Schools Challenge were announced at a ceremony hosted by the University of Reading. Eight of the ten winning schools attended a meeting that started with a tour of our … Continue reading →
Posted in Hands-on, Learning and Teaching, People, Primary Schools, Public, School Visits, Secondary Schools
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Tagged All Saints Infants, Blagdon Nursery, Coley Park Primary, English Martyrs RC Primary, Reading Girls, Southcote Primary, St Anne’s Roman Catholic Primary, The Avenue
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The 2013 MSc Plant Diversity intake arrived on Wednesday to a busy session of induction, safety talks and the formative plant ID test. The students were given 30 numbered plants to identify to family (plus genus and species if they … Continue reading →
This gallery contains 7 photos.
The tropical biodiversity greenhouse has had a year to settle down now and the plant growth has been amazing. Species that had never grown more than a metre or two high are now double their previous size and several have … Continue reading →
This gallery contains 8 photos.
While it’s impossible to give a single date for the planing of the tropical greenhouse the bulk of the work was done in August 2012. Photographs taken last August show small plants and some empty beds awaiting planting. Photos taken … Continue reading →
