By combining centuries of botanical knowledge with 21st century technology we’ve opened up our herbarium collections for all to explore! 🌾🌍 Feed you curiosity and dive into our collections in our brand new data portal ⬇️ 🧪👩‍🔬📗https://bit.ly/4oc5bMC

Just 10 days left to join us on the Millennium Seed Bank Seed Conservation Techniques course - running online on 13-24 October 🌱 We'll cover the ins and outs of seed storage behaviour, genetic diversity sampling, seed bank design, and much more ❄️🧪🏛️ ⏰ July 31 2025! www.kew.org/science/trai...

‘Biodiversity is not declining’ is a claim you may have heard. But science says otherwise. 📉 The @ipbes.net #GlobalAssessment reveals 1 million plant & animal species are at risk of extinction. Misinformation clouds the crisis. Rely on trusted research to understand our shared challenges. 🌍🧪

Great article on the history of & specimens collected by the Lady Franklin Bay expedition. I loved the use & the crediting of @bionomia.net (which uses #Wikidata for deceased collectors) for assisting in the uncovering of more specimens from that expedition. doi.org/10.1002/ppp3... #Bionomia

Each newly digitised sheet is a moment of discovery - from pressed rainforest orchids to fungi collected on 19th-century expeditions. These records help us understand our planet's biodiversity and how it’s changing 🌍📜

Through the power of digitisation, millions of Kew's plant and fungal specimens have stepped out of the archives and into the hands of the world 🌿 Explore the new Data Portal yourself and uncover centuries of botanical history - now just a click away! www.kew.org/read-and-wat...

In 1880, botanist Sir Isaac Bayley Balfour journeyed to the remote island of Socotra - now Yemen - seeking its unique flora. Our archives preserve his letters, telegraphs & press clippings from the expedition: a window into early plant exploration. Take a look! 👇 🗃 #KewLA

Today we launched a small service on JSTOR to help expert researchers get bulk access to bibliographic data and full text content. A fun part: you can go download 12M+ metadata records bulk in one file, right now: www.jstor.org/ta-support

Crear un #herbario digital global exige armonizar millones de registros con nomenclaturas dispares. Este estudio presenta un flujo de trabajo que se utilizó para estandarizar 177.138 registros de @gbif.org procedentes de 88 fuentes de datos y 96 datasets: ▶️ doi.org/10.1002/ppp3... 👇

Did you know that shade-grown coffee plantations can be powerful allies against climate change and biodiversity loss, AND support farming families who rely on coffee for their income? ☕🌳 Come with us to Mexico where our partnership project is shaping these benefits 👇 www.kew.org/read-and-wat...

In honour of International Archives Day, join Isabel, one of Kew’s Assistant Archivists! 📖📚 She takes you behind the scenes as she spends her day sorting records, assisting visitors, and showing you the variety of work that comes with the archives 👇 #InternationalArchivesDay

Happy #Pride month! This #FungiFriday we are going on a fungal foray through the pride flag. There have been many iterations since its original conception in 1978, including the Intersex-Inclusive flag by Valentino Vecchietti – which we have recreated in fungal fashion for the LGBTQ myco-maniacs

Digitised collections at @rbgkew.bsky.social reveal plant collecting trends during the First World War

🚀 Last call for registrations to the webinar: Introducing the Darwin Core Data Package! Join us as we share updates on a new data model for GBIF and exciting changes proposed for the Darwin Core standard! 📍 2 June 2025 14:00 - 15:00 CEST Register here: 🔗 gbif.link/DwC-webinar @tdwg.org

NEW! You can now access MILLIONS of our dried plant & fungal specimens via our new Data Portal! The official release comes as we continue to digitise our entire collection, some of which were collected by Chares Darwin himself! 🌿 Read more & check it out 🧪 www.kew.org/read-and-wat... #PlantScience

Over 5.5 millon records available! This is really something 😊

We MUST preserve the Earth's #biodiversity, but we MUST also protect biodiversity knowledge. #BHLib holds 500+ years – 63 million pages – of #OpenAccess biodiversity knowledge. BHL's future is uncertain... blog.biodiversitylibrary.org/2025/04/new-... #ILoveBHL #InternationalBiodiversityDay 🧪

MAJOR MILESTONE for fungal science! 🍄💻 Our entire Fungarium - 1.1 million dried fungi specimens - is now fully imaged!👇1/4 ow.ly/w9JX50VT9FA

1936 poster by Edward Bawden, for London transport. When I think about the future books I want to write, I often think I’d like to do a similar thing with words to what Bawden did with ink in the middle years of the 20th Century.

The Biodiversity Heritage Library has just surpassed 63 million pages! Spanning 1469–2025, BHL provides invaluable #OpenAccess to the foundation of our understanding of biodiversity. 🌎 📚 🌱 #ILoveBHL #BHLib ➡️ www.biodiversitylibrary.org

Latest update about the Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL). Get in contact with the BHL team with your comments and ideas #ILoveBHL blog.biodiversitylibrary.org/2025/04/new-...

Seed banking is crucial to safeguarding threatened plants from extinction, but seeds can be surprisingly fussy, as I learned in my latest for @knowablemag.bsky.social ☘️🌱🌳🌼🌺 Featuring @naomibot.bsky.social @rbgkew.bsky.social #plantconservation #botanicalgardens knowablemagazine.org/content/arti...

These days we're busy sequencing the DNA of thousands of fungi species held within our Fungarium collection - transforming our knowledge of this important kingdom of life even further! 🧬🧪🍄 You can find more about that right here 👇 www.kew.org/science/our-...

What do we do? The authors say we can’t just fight climate change, we also need to protect these forests right now. That means stopping deforestation, helping ecosystems bounce back, and backing Indigenous stewardship. 📣 Action isn’t optional - it’s urgent.

Today we celebrate the incredible biodiversity of our planet – and the power of #OpenAccess to protect it. The Biodiversity Heritage Library makes over 62 million pages of biodiversity knowledge freely available to all. 🔗 biodiversitylibrary.org #EarthDay #EarthDay2025 #Biodiversity #BHLib

Herbaria are collections of preserved plants, and have been called “plant mummies” as specimens usually turn brown, looking somewhat unappealing. Join us at the Linnean Society on 15 May to hear from Maura Flannery about the many reasons herbaria are worth keeping. www.eventbrite.co.uk...

DNA sequences as type meeting at Westerdijk - is today the day that we change life as you knew it? Cobus Visagie kicks it up a gear

Naturalists' Notebooks exhibition at the lovely Linnean Society, London (11 March-20 September 2025, Tuesdays to Fridays). @linneansociety.bsky.social

🌽An a-maize-ing #webinar opportunity to discuss #agrobiodiversity across GBIF 📣 We are seeking perspectives from GBIF nodes and delegations, data publishers and users, and other industry professionals who work across the field. 👩‍🔬 ⏰30 April 2025 14:00 - 15:30 CEST 🔗www.gbif.org/event/t...

🎥 Better than the original: New SQL-based service enables download of occurrence data cube GBIF has enabled an easy-to-use service for creating and downloading species occurrence cubes based on GBIF-mediated data. Collaborators: @b-cubed.eu led by @inbo.be gbif.link/data-cubes

Not just the USA www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Happy #WomensHistoryMonth! We're looking back at two important figures in Kew Mycology’s history 🍄👩‍🔬 First is the eminent Elsie Maud Wakefield, regarded as "one of the most influential British mycologists of her generation" 🧵👇

Business as usual... 🥸💼 More than 100 businesses from 21 countries are now sharing data through GBIF.org! ⭐ This equates to >840 datasets, 15,254 citations and 10 million occurrence records!🤯 Explore the records here: 🔗www.gbif.org/composi...

The Wardian Case was an invention that changed the world, but how? 🤔 Join our Economic Botany Collections Manager and Assistant Archivist in exploring the history of plant transportation and the box that made it possible 📽️👇 www.youtube.com/watch?v=OtiM...

This is why working against it is so important!

How many medicinal plants are there❔ The latest update to Kew's Medicinal Plants Names Service brings the total to 39,000+ 🌻🌱 Curious to know more - access the database that's open to all! mpns.science.kew.org

Another of the DigiVol expeditions I put together for the Kew Science Collections Digitisation Project is live! This one is Orchids, check it out and have a go at transcribing some of the Herbarium collection 🌿 volunteer.ala.org.au

Post from Herbarium World on botanical artist and explorer Marianne North herbariumworld.wordpress.com/2025/02/18/b...

I know it’s a long shot, but who knows. I’m updating 200+ years of materia medica data and wondering, has anyone automated the process of converting binomial names from older classifications into today’s APG system? Any leads on a Python script that could help? #botany #taxonomy #materiamedica

Oncidium Phoebe with cascades of white delicate flowers enjoying the sunshine yesterday 🌿 #orchids #orquídeas #nature #conservation

"Just living isn't enough, one must have sunshine, freedom and a little flower”. -Hans Christian Andersen

This fascinating flowering tree from Madagascar has young leaves that unfurl like fern fronds! Pseudopteris decipiens was given its genus name "Pseudopteris" (i.e. "false fern") due to this uncanny resemblance. This exciting new introduction thriving in the Sunken Garden @fairchildgarden

Often places were given different names in the past by the explorers. Did you know there was an expedition when they named #Colombia in this way? We discover #curious names by digitising the collections every day 😀

Productive and inspiring day with BGCI colleagues at @rbgkew.bsky.social talking about living collections management and data ecosystems. A highlight was first ever visit to the newly restored Marianne North gallery. Absolutely fabulous. Must see.

Notice: Digitised Collections Unavailable Our Online Collections are moving! There will be a few weeks when they will be unavailable, anticipated to start on 28 February. Please look out for announcements about the launch of our new platform: Linnean Online. Apologies for any inconvenience.

First posts by Kew gardens here share discoveries from the #KewDigi project 🧪

From @theguardian.com, “UK conservation goals insufficient to save ants and bees, says expert.” 🌍🧪🐝 www.theguardian.com/environment/...

The world needs more #WomenInScience! But a lack of female role models makes it difficult for girls and women to envision themselves as leaders in science.♀️🧪 This International Day of Women and Girls in Science, meet our scientists and hear their inspiring stories: https://buff.ly/3WVk4qE

This profile has been scrubbed from the site. Rose Ferreira grew up without reliable electricity, immigrated to NY, then survived homelessness and cancer on her way to NASA. She was so moved by images from the Webb telescope she wept. This is what’s at stake web.archive.org/web/20231206...