Royal Botanic Gardens

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United Kingdom - Surrey - Richmond

Institution Code: K

BGCI Member: Yes

The Waterlily House at Kew.
The Waterlily House at Kew.

About the Royal Botanic Gardens

The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew has an extraordinary wealth
of living plant collections across our two sites, Kew Gardens
and Wakehurst. One of our key objectives as an organisation
is that our collections should be curated to excellent standards
and widely used for the benefit of humankind.

Main Address:
Royal Botanic Gardens
Kew
Richmond
Surrey TW9 3AE United Kingdom

Telephone: 0208 332 5000
Fax: 0208 332 5197
URL: http://www.kew.org
Primary Email: info@kew.org

Staff Details

  • Director's Name: Richard Deverell
    Curator's Name: Richard Barley
    Plant Records Officer's Name: Thomas Freeth
  • Total Staff:
    Horticultural Staff Number: 100
    Educational Staff Number: 75
    Research Staff Number: 300
    Administration Staff Number: 100

About the Garden

  • Institution Type: Botanic Garden
  • Status
  • Status: Private: No
    Status: State: Yes
    Status: Educational: Yes
    Status: Municipal: No
    Status: Satellite: No
    Status: Trust: Yes
  • Date founded: 1759
  • Physical Data
  • Total Area: 130 Hectares
    Latitude: 51.478845
    Longitude: -0.296843
    Annual Rainfall: 659 mm
    Altitude: 0.00 Metres
    Total area of glasshouses: 3000 Metres

Features and Facilities

  • Herbarium: Yes
    Herbarium: Number of Specimens: 8000000
    Arboretum: Yes
  • Micropropagation/ Tissue Culture Facilities: Yes
    Seed Bank: Yes
    Published Plant Catalogue: Yes
    Computer Plant Record System: Yes
  • Open to public: Yes
    Friends society: Yes
    Retail Outlet: Shop: Yes
    Retail Outlet: Plant Sales: Yes
    Disabled access: Yes
  • Number of Visitors: 1600000
    Number of Volunteers: 800

Plant Collections

  • Accession Number: 49000
    Cultivation Taxa Num: 16600
  • Invasive Species Monitoring: Yes
    Invasive Species Policy: Yes
    ABS Policy: Yes
    Plant Collection Policy: Yes

Conservation Programmes

  • Conservation Programme: Yes
    Medicinal Plant Programme: Yes
    Ex Situ Conservation Programme: Yes
    Reintroduction Programme: Yes

Research Programmes

  • Biotechnology: Yes
    Conservation - Genetics: Yes
    Data Management Systems and Information Technology: Yes
    Ecology: Yes
    Education: Yes
    Ethnobotany: Yes
    Exploration: Yes
    Horticulture: Yes
    Molecular Genetics: Yes
    Pollination Biology: Yes
    Restoration Ecology: Yes
    Systematics and Taxonomy: Yes
    Sustainability: Yes
    Land Restoration: Yes
    Urban Environments: Yes

Education Programmes

  • Visitor/Education Centre: Yes
    Education Signs in Garden: Yes
    Public Lectures/Talks: Yes
    Guided Tours: Yes
    Permanent Public Displays: Yes
    Special Exhibitions: Yes
    Courses for School Children: Yes
    Courses for University/College Students: Yes
    Courses for General Public: Yes
    Education Programme: Yes

Huarango Woodland Restoration Project

The ancient Nasca people drove themselves to near-extinction by replacing woodlands of the huarango tree (Prosopis pallida) with intensive farming practices.  Without huarango trees to release moisture to the atmosphere, the local climate became progressively drought-prone, thus dooming the agriculture in this very arid part of southern Peru.

Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew is working with local people, government and industry to re-establish hyperarid woodlands in southern Peru. For more than five years, school children and their parents have learned about the importance of the native huarango tree to their own economic well-being, and have become major partners in re-establishing the woodlands and conserving remnant stands of native vegetation.

They have propagated tens of thousands of native trees, shrubs and herbs and the new woodland is over one kilometre long.

Deforestation of huarango woodland