Valerie attends launch of Kew Gardens Science Collections Strategy

I attended the launch of Kew Gardens Science Collections Strategy in Parliament on Thursday 15 March.

The Science Collections at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, represent an asset that has been growing more or less continuously for the past 170 years. The Royal Botanic Gardens now have over 8.5 million specimens housed at their sites at Kew and Wakehurst.

These specimens range from dried plant and fungal material preserved on sheets of paper, to seeds in jars stored at -20 degrees, to DNA samples stored in freezers at -80 degrees.

They represent a global research resource, enabling the discovery of new knowledge on plants and fungi, their diversity and uses, and their potential to provide solutions to some of the most critical challenges facing humanity today.

The Science Collections are used by a global community of researches – notable individuals such as Charles Darwin and Beatrix Potter, and those involved in developing trade in tea, coffee, rubber and plant-based medicines, were early users of the collections.

Find out more about the Science Collections Strategy here: www.kew.org/science/who-we-are-and-what-we-do/kews-science-strategy