Author Archives: Tim Entwisle

Tim Entwisle

About Tim Entwisle

Dr Tim Entwisle is a scientist and scientific communicator with a broad interest in plants, science and gardens, and Director & Chief Executive of Melbourne’s Royal Botanic Gardens. Previously he was Director of Conservation, Living Collections & Estates at Royal Botanic Gardens Kew and prior to that, Director of Sydney’s Royal Botanic Gardens for eight years. Read Tim’s full blog at Talking Plants

Salvia discolor (Andean Silver-leaf Sage) From darkest Peru to Melbourne

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The little black salvia flower is very Melbourne. Dressed in black*, restrained and…cultivated (well it’s been planted in a garden). Salvia discolor is its name and it has just come into flower outside our living room window. I hadn’t noticed it until Lynda pointed out that a fairly nondescript plant with grey-green leaves had sprung black flowers. Continue reading →

Powis castle, Wales Crims don’t like a neatly trimmed hedge

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Received wisdom (i.e. knowledge often of the most unreliable kind) is that thickets of plants provide good places for criminals to dwell and hone their craft. Well, it turns out, in Philadelphia at least, that vegetation, well maintained, can lower crime rates. Aggravated assault, robbery and burglary all drop when you clip your hedge. But first you have to grow a hedge. Continue reading →

Cabbage Heads or Kales

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James Joyce mentions the florin early into Ulysses, reason enough for Frank Delaney to tell us about the origin of the word in his exasperatingly brilliant Re:Joyce podcast. The ‘florin’ was first used and named in the Italian city of Florence, or Firenze, but according to Delaney the name refers to a flower rather than the city. The first coins, he says, bore a lily on one side. Continue reading →

Alberta magna1 Natal flame lights up Melbourne summer

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Alberta magna is a lonely species. It’s rare in its natural habitat and it’s been left isolated taxonomically after the rest of the species, all from Madagascar, were moved the mouthful of a genus, Razafimandimbisonia. The common name Natal Flame Bush pretty much sums up Alberta magna. It comes from ZwaZulu-Natal and the Easter Cape region of South Africa, it has flame coloured flowers (too intense for my camera to cope with) and it’s a bush or perhaps small tree. The alternative name Mountain Alberta is not so informative. Continue reading →

Delicate blue flowers of Scilla madeirensis, the Giant Madeiran Squill Giant squill is simply delightful, Madeira

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No I haven’t been to Madeira. But according to Greg Redwood, one of my colleagues here at Kew, I should go there rather than to (mainland) Portugal. This was in response to me listing the places in Europe Lynda and I had hoped to visit while on this side of the world. Oh, well. Next time. For now though I have the Madeirenese (I’m torn here between Madeiranese and Madeirenese – if only I’d studied Latin at school) flora to enjoy. And isn’t that the great thing about a botanic garden: you can visit the plant world without leaving home. Continue reading →

Tim Entwisle Promenade plantée 1 Plant promenade in Paris

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At 10 metres above the ground, maybe 10 metres wide, nearly 5 kilometres long, and packed with trees, shrubs and views of Parisian streets, the Promenade plantée is a trend setter and worth a look next time you are in town. OK, so it’s ranked 180th in Lonely Planet’s list of 1524 things to do in Paris, but then this is about my fifth visit to Paris and I like plants. Continue reading →

Destroyed palm oil plantation forest [Photo: WWF] Palming off palm oil’s true cost

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“…biodiversity loss in one of the world’s most biodiverse regions; land degradation…loss of ecosystem services;…release in the atmosphere of large quantities of carbon…”. These are just some of the so-called externalities excluded from the balance sheet of most corporations producing Palm Oil, says Pavan Sukhdev. Continue reading →