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e-Monocot is a NERC funded consortium between Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, Oxford University and the Natural History Museum.

 

Grant no's 279981, 279984 & 279970. Period, Nov./Dec. 2010 to Oct./Nov. 2013.

 

 

E-mail: enquiries@e-monocot.org.

Dr Lauren Maria Gardiner

Personal Information
Title: 
Dr
Given name(s): 
Lauren Maria
Family name: 
Gardiner
Institution: 
RBG Kew
Area of Taxonomic Interest: 
Palmae; Arecaceae; Orchidaceae; Systematics; Taxonomy; Conservation; Economic uses; Sustainable use
What's your favourite monocot and why?: 

Coelogyne cristata - a beautiful white orchid which I found growing in enormous numbers in a mist-strewn cardamom field, at a steep angle overhanging a winding road through the foothills of the Himalayas in Sikkim. We'd hoped to see it at this site, having seen a few plants of the species in other locations, but nothing prepared us for how many enormous plants we'd find, in full flower, covering the trunks of the shade trees. I climbed and scrambled up the steep slope first out of our group, and others followed much more slowly - but could hear my exclamations as I found the first plant - the largest clump of flowering orchids I'd ever seen in the wild, and then as the mist parted I saw that the next tree had an even bigger clump, and the next tree, and the next. Truly breathtaking.


Scratchpads developed and conceived by: Vince Smith, Simon Rycroft, Dave Roberts, Ben Scott...