Wonderful World of Botanical at Kew Gardens, UK

The entrance at the Victoria Gate.

Recently we (Myrokan blog) had this opportunity to visit the world most renowned botanical garden that also known as Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Kew Gardens is one of the oldest botanical gardens in the world that also played many important roles in introducing specimens of plant and trees to many other countries such as rubber and tea. Kew Gardens not only keep living specimens of plants, but also dried specimens, seeds and DNA, libraries, illustrations and many other records related to plants. That’s what makes Kew Gardens one of the most important places that we visited in London.

Kew Garden founded in 1840 in the area that originally was the exotic garden at Kew Park. That park itself had been enlarged several times with the merging of the royal estates of Richmond and Kew in 1772. Within this area many garden structures had been built and some of them still remain until today.

The pond right in front of the Museum no 1.

The temperate house just been reopened two days earlier.

Well, there are so many things happened back there, but here we want to see other important things that we still can see at Kew Gardens and other activities related to it - that will give benefits to us and the future generations. Even though they have only taken care of plants, but the further study of these plants is actually for human benefits such as for agriculture, medicine, farming, cloning, seed bank, references, cataloguing and you can check more on their website – included at the end of this article.

Knowing more about Kew Gardens is important before you plan to visit it (well, no one can ever visit the whole of the areas within one day – so you must know which areas that important to you, or you can visit it several times). Maybe the best way to do it by asking these few questions;

• Are you just want to see the plants in Kew Gardens?
• Are you interested to know how Kew Gardens keep the specimens of the plants and trees?
• Are you interested to know the history of Kew Gardens and their buildings (such as their glass houses, their garden structures, bridges, canopy walk, cottage, palaces and many other buildings in Kew Gardens)?
• Are you interested to know more about the activities conducted here in Kew Gardens?
• Are you interested to participate in activities conducted by Kew Gardens (exhibitions or scientific activities) in their vicinity or online?
• Where you can find the map of the whole area?
• How you are going to explore the area?
• Time of opening, as the time will change according to the seasons.
• How you can contact Kew Gardens in order to get more information in case you need some help?

The Palm House another important glass house with huge size.

The tropical plants and trees can live vigorously inside this glass house.

It might hard for us to see this plant in their own natural habitat.

There are many other questions you can ask during the preparation to visit Kew Gardens. By identifying your priorities you will save lots of time and you will know exactly where to look at during your visit. Even though I managed to see what I want during my visit, I still missed a few things - I think I could improve it if I plan it properly. The other reason is, there are too many things to see.

The best thing was, during my visit the Temperate House has just reopened two days earlier. I also joined the tour guide that explaining more details about the history, the process of restoration that cost around £41 million and take a look at the Temperate House itself. It was closed for the past 5 years for the restoration process. There are many interesting things about this building that we should talk about it separately – hopefully I will get a chance to do it.

The Temperate House not only important for its functions but also for its architecture.

The plants and trees had been relocated back into the Temperate House.

Kew Palace, another important building in Kew Gardens.

Flowers of plant at the Queen’s Garden.

Flowers of plant at the Queen’s Garden.

There are few more glass houses in Kew Gardens includes Palm House, Waterlilly House, Princess of Wales Conservatory and Davies Alpine House. All of the glass houses, housing different types of plants - so please try not to miss it. You can use optional transports in the gardens either bicycle or electric train to help you travelling around. I used the electric train and still I missed few!

Here in this article I shared a few photos during my visit. If you want to see more photos you can visit our fanpage where I posted more photos. I hope it will help others who unable to visit to Kew yet to see how it look like and to get the general ideas of what Kew Gardens is.

The Princess of Wales Conservatory glass house.

Orchids of tropical planted in this glass house.

Another beautiful tropical plant’s flower.

Another beautiful view of the pillar’s covered with tropical plants.

You can see different types of plants in the same glass house.

Carnivorous plant specimens, is one of important plants that I want to see here in Kew Gardens.

Besides visiting Kew Gardens physically, you still can learn more about it or get involved with their activities online. Check their websites to learn more about their activities. You can easily get in touch with them to know more about any activities that you can get involved with. So this is the link to Kew Gardens’ website.

There are many other things I would like to share about the details in each area of Kew Gardens, perhaps I can do it soon. Before that, you can ask me if there is any question - don’t forget to see the photos that I posted on my fanpage to get more ideas about Kew Gardens.

Micro Post: Sword-billed Hummingbird

Sword-billed hummingbird with its long bill.

One of the wonderful things about Sword-billed hummingbird (Ensifera ensifera) is the long beak that even longer from its own body. It’s also the biggest in its family with the averages length up to 14 cm (5.5 in) - not including its 8 cm (4 in) bill. While its weighs about 12 grams (0.4 oz).

It’s living in high elevation areas mostly from 2,500 m (8,200 ft) in Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela. The main purpose of sword-billed hummingbird is to pollinating the flowers with long corollas such as Passiflora mixta and angel's trumpets family (Brugmansia sanguine) where most other pollinators wouldn’t be able to pollinate it.

The flower that rely on the hummingbird to be pollinated.

The skeleton of sword-billed hummingbird.

Other than flower’s nectar they also feed on small spiders and insects as part of important sources of protein, especially during the breeding season. The insects are important to help proper develop their young. A nesting female can capture up to 2,000 insects a day.

The males will establish feeding territories and will aggressively chase away other males as well as other large insects - such as bumblebees and hawk moths that trying to feed in their territory.

Another interesting thing about the sword-billed hummingbird is they need to hold its long bill up high in order to balance while perching to avoid toppling over.

Unique Group of Plants; Cactus

Cactus has important functions and is a unique plant.

For those of us who live in the tropics cactus may seem unusual because it grows in dry areas. Although some can be grown here, but the cacti are group of plants that so large just as other plants group.

Cactus plants are collection of plants in the family Cactaceae, the group consists of 127 genera and consists of approximately 1,750 species identified. It has varieties in sizes and shapes with a relatively wide distribution, but usually in a dry lying area (with low rainfall levels). However, some families of cactus is very unique and a plant that supplies tasty fruit to be eaten.

Stunning cactus image.

Beautiful flower from Ariocarpus kotschoubeyanus.

Cactus is an important source of food in the desert.

Just like any other plants cactus conducting photosynthesis to produce its own food. The different is most cacti equipped with spikes coming out of the trunk through the points known as "areola". The thorns on cactus also vary according to the type (and it is one of the important features to recognize a species of cactus).

Although cacti spines provide protection to the cactus it also has many other purposes. One is to reduce the sunlight directly hit on the stem. Spines also offer little protection from the hot sun. Even for species of cactus "cholla", spines help to spread the seeds that will be attached to the animal and will fall in a new place that might be appropriate for it to grow on more fertile land.

However cacti are also an important plant to animals and humans. For examples animals such as desert tortoises, cactus is a source of food that can provide energy and water, while other animals are also made of cacti as place to build nest and home. At the same time, human take benefit of cacti as a source of water when necessary. While some species of cacti produce edible fruit. Among the most famous cactus fruit is "dragon fruit". Even for "dragon fruit", the entire part of the plant can be used to provide food source for humans.

Cholla cactus has spines that easily attaches.

Flowers from saguaro cactus (Carnegiea gigantea)

Among cacti used as decoration.

Few other species of cacti used as decoration.

Among the interesting things about the cactus is; the largest cactus is from the species of Pachycereus pringlei, ever recorded reached a height of 19.2 m (63 ft), while the smallest species are   Blossfeldia liliputiana, with the diameter size of only 1 cm (0.4 in) when mature. While such a large species of cactus "saguaro" (Carnegiea gigantea) is said to be able to absorb water up to 200 US gallons (760 liters) during the rainy season.

Recognizing the uniqueness of these cacti, many cactus centers been opened to get people attention and educate the important of cacti. It also featured as an ornamental plant, many more potential cacti raised here. Naturally cactus is a plant that is still less explored for its further potentials. Then recognizing these unique plants and learning more about it are very important.

Dragon fruit farm in Vietnam.

Dragon fruit look delicious.

Cactus fruit, known as "Indian Fig" sale at the market.