In the Guardian yesterday was the amazing story of a fungus that controls the behaviour of ants and the use of another fungus by the ants to control the first fungus. Zombie-ant parasitic fungus kept in check by hyperparasitic fungus … Continue reading
This gallery contains 3 photos.
At lunchtime today we started moving some of the railway sleepers to mark out the design of the tropical glasshouse planting areas on the ground. There is a world of difference between a sketch on paper and the reality of … Continue reading
The travel of Europeans to the Americas in the 15th century began a process that was to dramatically change agriculture and humanity around the world. The Colombian Exchange was a term coined by Alfred W. Crosby in 1972 to describe … Continue reading
Utricularia longifolia Gardner was described from Pedra Bonita some 50 km north of Rio De Janeiro in the London Journal of Botany in 1842 in an article on the Flora of Brasil. The page describing the species can be seen … Continue reading
I’m working through the plans for the low nutrient habitat display in the glasshouse. We already have a good range of epiphytic bromeliads and some epiphytic orchids. There are also a range of carnivorous plants to be grown here including Heliamphora, … Continue reading
We have been growing Cyperus papyrus for many years at Reading University and while the individual shoots grow tall the plants never seem very vigorous. The opportunity gained by digging the plant up and dividing it has allowed the option of … Continue reading
Most of the old plantings have now been dug up and new plants propagated. Here we see six keen volunteers with a range of the plants in pots including a fine flowering orchid specimen. Now much of the old overgrown … Continue reading
I’ve been in discussion with a range of people about the crops we should be growing in our global tropical small holding. There are some obvious species the we know we can grow and we already have: Banana (Musa cultivars), … Continue reading
After many weeks of research, discussion and negotiation we finally have our recycled, untreated hardwood railway sleepers to create the raised beds for drainage and landscaping in the greenhouse. Although the space seems small we needed 120 sleepers to do … Continue reading
Four people and two hours were needed to mix together a large pile of well rotted compost and a slightly smaller pile or horticultural grit. Luckily the weather was dry and not too hot for this long and tiring job. … Continue reading
