KEW!!!!!!

So Kew Gardens was possibly the coolest thing I've done in my life so far......
And I would like to work there, or be buried there or something. I do want to go back because my only complaint was that I didn’t have enough time to see everything. Kew is nearly 300 acres of glass houses and gardens. With one of the largest Herbariums in the world, containing over 7 million specimens, Kew also has endangered and extinct species.

 In the morning we had four lectures, the first was a tour of the herbarium with an explanation of how new species are discovered and documented.

  Our second lecture was on Kew’s breeding project using Crop Wild Relatives for cross breeding. Because of the UK’s aversion to GMO’s their scientists have to look to the old breeding methods for crop improvement. Our third lecture was on how climate change is effecting mountain landscapes in Peru. And our final talk was a behind the scenes tour of the greenhouses used to produce the tropical greenhouse plants used in displays, I vomited I was so excited….  And after we were able to tour the gardens! They had many sculptures, greenhouses, and displays. One of the nicest gardens I have ever been to. I want to go again.




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