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The Botanical Artist Who Translates Plant Science Into Beautiful Art – Leila McNeill

Alice Tangerini – botanical illustrator who is the only botanical illustrator at the Smithsonian, begins with line drawings then uses microscope to investigate specimens details, combines art and science

Created hundreds of illustrations of over 1000 different species, has been called ‘irreplaceable’ in her field

Worked with a botanist – Lyman Smith - who wanted to hire an illustrator, practised drawing plans while she worked with him, worked with him on weekends and in the summer

Draws lots of dead plant specimens, gives them new life

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Second research trip to Kew Gardens 9/9/2020

My second trip to Kew Botanical Gardens was comprised of collecting more information and taking photographs that I can use within projects as references. I also found that the photos have taken provided me with colour combinations found in nature which can be used in my work.

I focused my research into looking at how Kew looks after plants, especially endangered ones, as this links to my project. For example, Kew ‘encourages the good relationships between trees and fungi by inoculating root zones with beneficial fungi, an example of mutualism.’

Phenelogy is the study of seasonal change - paying attention n to nature’s rhythms has enabled us to adapt and thrive, these rhythms are changing as a r result of global change.

Kew has a large redwood forest within the garden, giant redwoods once grew over a large area of America however they now only grow in 75 ancient groves inside national parks, where they are protected

The cypress family contains over 180 species, the wood of this family is popular as it is resistant to termites and fungi

Aloe jucunda - native to harsh environment in northern Somalia, critically endangered as its habitat has been destroyed by livestock grazing

Aloe baldly or rat aloe - endangered tree aloe, restricted to small area on border of Kenya and Tanzania, it is poisonous but is also used medicinally as a laxative

Ensete ventrocosom or false banana - feeds an estimated 20 million people in southern Ethiopia - no cause for concern

Judaea chilensis or chilean wine palm - threatened by its usefulness, sap is fermented to make palm wine and palm syrup, this plant is vulnerable

Campanula kachethica or Kakhetian bellflower - endangered, seeds have been collected and stored in Millenium Seed Bank

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7 Environmental Artists Fighting For Change - Lorenzo Pereira

Environmental art is a broad term - land art, sustainable art, earth art, conceptual art

Claude Monet was described as an environmentalist for his paintings where he explored human’s relation to nature

EA emerged in the 1960′s - Nils-Udo, Jean-Max Albert, Piotr Kowalski

Distinction between those who are not focused on environmental issues and those who aim to explore relations between nature and the human world, raise awareness to ecological problems

Christo and Robert Smithson criticised for permanent ecological damage from art pieces

Environmental artists help to understand nature

Artists: Robert Morris, Chris Jordan, Agnes Denes, Edith Meusnier, Andy Goldsworthy

Pereira, L., 2016. 7 Environmental Artists Fighting For Change | Widewalls. [online] Widewalls.ch. Available at: <https://www.widewalls.ch/magazine/environmental-artists/red-earth-environmental-art-group> [Accessed 25 August 2020].

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Gardens In Full Bloom - Emma Marris

Botanical gardens are: store of rare plants and skills, centres of molecular research, repositories of knowledge

Challenge for botanical gardens is to maintain place in scientific world while remaining true to hybrid heritage

Specific specialities: plant taxonomy, whole organism biology

‘Molecular systematics are part of the gardens’ mission to understand plants’ - Michael Donoghue

‘We need to preserve the understanding that a plant is more that just a bag of genes’ - Edward Schneider

‘Most of the world’s plants diversity specialists are in the north, and most of the plant diversity is in the south’

Botanical gardens support conservation in 2 ways: study plant diversity and establish what is rare where, grow rare plants and keep their seeds

Cosmos atrosanguineus - chocolate cosmos plant only in kew, cuttings are ‘self-incompatible’ so can't reproduce, preserving genetic diversity is a big part of the gardens agenda

‘Long-term thoughtful intervention’ will protect plant diversity, maintaining biodiversity in the face of climate change is going to be a very active process

Marris, E., 2006. Gardens In Full Bloom. [online] Nature. Available at: <https://www.nature.com/articles/440860a> [Accessed 25 August 2020].

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Laura Hart - botanical artist

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Rogan Brown - botanical art

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Zadok Ben-David - botanical artist

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Kate Kato - botanical artist

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Tiffant Bozic - botanical artist

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Ernst Haeckel - botanical illustrator

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Anne Pratt - botanical illustrator

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Franz and Ferdinand Bauer - botanical illustrators

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Pierre-Joseph Redoute - botaical illustrator

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Maria Sibylla Merian - botanical illustrator

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Engaging with plants in an urban environment through street art and design

Draw attention to botanical world 

Focus on plant motifs shines light on cultural connections that we share with plants - highlights the importance for human existence

art and design in built environment - street art, urban spaces means diverse audience

Plant awareness - consciousness that individuals have of plants

Wandersee et al (2006) ‘botanical sense of place’ concept, intellectual state of n individual by retrieving memories connected to places and plants

plant drawings can be traced back to prehistoric rock carvings

plant images carved into narrative structures in temple art 

plant glorification - high degree of utility

Sachdev, G., 2019. Engaging With Plants In An Urban Environment Through Street Art And Design. [online] nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com. Available at: <https://nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/ppp3.10055> [Accessed 20 August 2020].

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Plants in the Earth’s sixth extinction

Five mass extinctions in earth’s history, last one saw end of dinosaurs - scientists believe we are entering the sixth

scientists believe we are losing 135 plants, animal and insect everyday

1 Million plant and animal species are threatened by extinction

Largest driver of modern extinction is human activity, global population has doubled to nearly 8 billion and is a strain on land and water resources

clearing land for agriculture is big factor, wipes out species that don't grow anywhere else

290 million hectares of native forest cover have been lost since 1990

climate change is another long term cause, plants struggle to adapt

pollution affects resources that species rely on to survive like water and soil

extinct In the wild means the last plants in its natural habitat has died however some may be found in botanical gardens or private collections 

extinct means the species has disappeared from the planet entirely

99% of all species that ever existed on earth are now extinct

one in five plant are estimated to be threatened with extinction

leukaemia treatment derived from madagascan periwinkle, which was nearly eradicated through habitat loss

https://www.kew.org/read-and-watch/plants-sixth-extinction

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Trip to Kew Gardens on 14/08/2020

I made my first research based trip to Kew Gardens on the 14th of August. Due to COVID the gardens weren't open to public for a long period of summer however I managed to pay a visit. Unfortunately the Marianne North gallery and the Shirley Sherwood gallery were both closed, as were the archives, however I hope to make a visit to this at some point when they open, however due to COVID this is difficult at the moment.

Things I learnt from my visit:

The greenhouses are home to a wide range of plants, many of which are extinct in the wild and only thrive within the care of Kew, as they can keep conditions perfect for them

Kew has a history of cultivating plants with medicinal properties, scientists look at the chemical components to identify potentially beneficial compounds, for example, aloe vera

Pollination is an important part in food security - a third of the worlds crop yield depends, to some extent, on pollinators, the Hive, an art sculpture, highlights the importance, pressing question - how can we protect our pollinators to ensure we can feed a growing population?

There is a tree called the ‘Pagoda tree’ which is so old and overgrown that is has been held up by stilts and a brick wall to ensure it can still thrive, it used to stand 15m tall but one the lower branch remains now, it is a relic from Princess Augusta’s original arboretum, 250 years old, horticultural management keeps it alive, brick work protects roots

Alpine plants keep close to the ground to expose only a small surface area, slow growing, over lapping leaves reduce water loss

St Helena olive, extinct, Kew conservationists collected cuttings from last known wild plants before it died, succumbed to termite attacks and fungal infections, DNA stored in sub zero temp at kew DNA bank, may be able to bring species back in the future

Dombeya mauritiania, remarkable at it changes gender depending on the temp, hot conditions it grows male flowers, cool conditions it grows female flowers, was thought to be extinct however a tree was found and cuttings were made, all specimens of this plants are clones of two wild specimens found, hope for future as there is still some genetic diversity to be able to hopefully restore populations

12 specimens of cylindrocline commersonii exist growing on mountainside, only has two species, both critically endangered, seeds stored at seed bank

cabbage tree existence was threatened by feral goats eating it, 1980s three mature trees left, situation was stabilised by reintroducing lost species and the removal of feral goats

managing invasive species must be done to restore plant populations, top 10 pests are: cotton bollworm, tobacco whitefly, cotton aphid, fall army worm, green peach aphid, diamondback moth, taro caterpillar, two-spotted spider mite, brown plant hopper, red flour beetle