University of Oxford Botanic Garden and Arboretum

Tickets are now on sale for Oxford Botanic Garden's annual Christmas Fair - enjoy two days of festive shopping, live music, delicious food and drink, and activities for children, all within the beautiful 17th-century Walled Garden. 📅 Saturday 7 December (10:00 - 18:00) and Sunday 8 December (10:00 - 16:00) 🎟️ Book your tickets online: https://lnkd.in/eg_j7D49

Your lunchtime listen: Deadly plants can be the source of great cures, but how can a plant that is poisonous also heal us? Oxford Botanic Garden and Arboretum Plant Records Officer, ethnobotanist Dr Sarah Edwards, spoke with Frances Tophill for the Gardeners' World Magazine podcast on Dangerous Plants. Listen here: https://lnkd.in/e76viJGA 📷 Dr Sarah Edwards leading an ethnobotanical tour as part of #BUC2024

OBGA Deputy Director Dr Chris Thorogood is co-curator and host of The Cultural Programme Conscious Planet Symposium Day - an afternoon of conversation, research and creativity exploring how we define and understand different states of consciousness from plants, humans and other animals, to AI. This interdisciplinary panel discussion will tackle big questions around consciousness, from the perspectives of biologists, psychiatrists, anthropologists, artists and AI specialists. Hosted by Chris Thorogood, chaired by Carl Miller, with guest panellists and speakers including Professor Willem Kuyken, Professor Nayanika Mathur and Kenneth Cukier. 📅 Friday 25 October, 13:45 - 17:00 📍 Oxford University Museum of Natural History 🎟️ The event is free to attend, booking is required. More details and tickets: https://lnkd.in/eQSeBA_e

We are delighted to announce the speakers for our 2024 Autumn Science Lectures series on the topic of 'Plants and Medicine'. All lectures are online and free, taking place on Thursdays at 19:00 - booking is required. 10 October Professor Julie Hawkins: 'Plants and Medicine' 24 October Dr Sue Burge OBE: 'Plants, Potions and Skin' 7 November Professor Frances Platt: 'From mulberry to rare diseases: a scientific journey' 21 November An Autumn Science Lecture with Professor John Geddes 5 December Dr Shahina Ghazanfar: The historical and cultural importance of plants mentioned in the Qur'an Book now: https://lnkd.in/eBuqjTXk

Who will win #BUC2024? It's between University of Cambridge and University of York! Watch the final now to see which team will get to lift the trophy: https://lnkd.in/gnHV4pKP

We’re delighted to be hosting the finals of Botanical University Challenge 2024 here at Oxford, including the second Student Botany Festival. The semi-finals between University of York, University of Reading, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and University of Cambridge will be underway soon. Watch here from 14:00 BST: https://lnkd.in/gK2NmrcF

In celebration of #Lammas – or ‘Loaf Mass’ Day: A visual history of British cereal production in one photo. Oxford Botanic Garden’s new Heritage Grains Display, developed with support from Fielden Whisky and the Heritage Grain Trust, presents the history of cereal growing in Britain, showcasing the diversity that exists within the main cereals of wheat, rye, barley and oats, and the potential of heritage (pre-1900) cereals for sustainable crop production and food security in a world with a rapidly changing climate.

It was a pleasure to welcome Dr Talemos Seta, Director of Dilla University Botanic Garden, Ethiopia, to Oxford Botanic Garden and Arboretum earlier this month. Dr Seta has been working with Harcourt Arboretum Curator Ben Jones since 2018, where they worked together to deliver training focused on nursery management, propagation techniques, and botanical survey methods. Whilst in the UK, Dr Seta delivered talks to the Oxford Botanic Garden and Arboretum team, and visited colleagues at the Fielding-Druce Herbarium at Department of Biology, University of Oxford, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Botanic Gardens Conservation International, and the Millennium Seed Bank.

On Tuesday this week, we hosted climbing arborists from the National Arboretum Westonbirt, and Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew for a joint aerial rescue training day. The three teams were represented by 12 climbers in total, who spent the day sharing knowledge, and performing aerial rescues using a range of different rescue techniques.

Flowering in the Water Lily House is this extraordinary jade vine, Strongylodon macrobotrys. Its glorious and unusual jade colour 'glows' under moonlight, attracting the bats which pollinate it. The jade vine is native to the Philippines, where it is known as Tayabak and is much celebrated when in flower. Oxford Botanic Garden and Arboretum has enjoyed a special working relationship with University of the Philippines Los Baños for a number of years and we are delighted our jade vine is flourishing so well since its replanting in 2018, representing the remarkable flora of the Philippines. Thank you to our colleagues at UPLB for sharing photos of the jade vine at Mt. Makiling and UP Land Grants. Don't miss your chance to see our vine in bloom over the next few weeks! 1. OBGA horticulturists with our jade vine in bloom (L-R Ross Edwards, Laurie Thomson, Jess Snowball and George Wickson). 2. Adriane Tobias (left) and Dr Pastor Malabrigo Jr (right) of UPLB with OBGA Deputy Director Dr Chris Thorogood. 3. & 4. A jade vine flowering in the Philippines. Photos courtesy of UPLB. 5. A jade vine flowering on Mount Makiling, where the flower was first officially described.