Free exhibition open now and runs until 23 September
Tag: John Hope Gateway
Celebrating Edinburgh’s Shoreline: exhibition opens this weekend
Celebrate Edinburgh’s stunning shoreline and the exciting community regeneration underway along the 27km from Queensferry to Joppa – visit the exhibition, meet the people and delight in their art, then make your mark by tagging the shoreline map to say which area you think should be preserved and which could be improved.
You are invited to join us:
Friday, July 27
18:30 – 20:30 John Hope Gateway
Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, Arboretum Place
https://indd.adobe.com/view/bd1d43eb-80cb-4456-b392-b24f70faa6b0
Edinburgh’s coastline communities have a proud heritage of distinct social and cultural traditions where a sense of community has endured. Time has not always been kind, industries have suffered and sensitive redevelopment is required. Yet, this seaboard is home to an internationally important flora and fauna which could soon harvest new benefits for those along the shore.
The Edinburgh Shoreline project has launched at a time of community desire for regeneration. It presents a real opportunity for tangible change. Steered by those who use the area for work and play – with backing from key agencies – it could become an enduring testament to the power of communities celebrating their past and protecting their future.
A new vibrancy can be felt in all kinds of activity around the beaches, harboursides and proms. Natural habitats can be at the heart of this Renaissance.
Flora Scotia: See Scotland’s plants in a new light at the Botanics
A major new international arts initiative highlighting the intricate beauty and biodiversity of plant life has opened in Edinburgh. ‘Flora Scotia’ at the Royal Botanic Gardens showcases Scotland’s native plants in a new light, with contemporary paintings raising awareness about different species and landscapes. Continue reading Flora Scotia: See Scotland’s plants in a new light at the Botanics
Guttied: celebrating Sapotaceae
Nature Mother of Invention exhibition at the Botanics
It’s been dubbed ‘the most important plant family you’ve never heard of’ and visitors to the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (RBGE) can discover just how much we have relied upon Sapotaceae for everything from plimsolls and golf balls to intercontinental communication – and continue to exploit it with advancements in skin care and miracle sweeteners.
Even the iconic hornbill bird has a place in Nature Mother of Invention, the major exhibition in the John Hope Gateway.
With an underlying premise that creativity and invention do not flourish in isolation, the exhibition uses Sapotaceae to explore the ongoing fascination for life enhancing – and life-sustaining – products that have influenced the world since Victorian times.
The main vehicle for this fun and informative excursion is the “gutty” or, to be accurate, several pairs of gutties as remembered particularly, if not fondly, by individuals who had the cheap plimsolls forced upon them as young children.
This is an exhibition brimming over with “human” stories to engage all ages, as RBGE tropical botanist and Sapotaceae expert Dr Peter Wilkie explained: “This is a large family of trees and shrubs, first brought to the attention of Europeans in the mid-17thcentury and the latex produced by these plants is a good example of the innovation and – the implications – that come from exploitation (and over exploitation) of nature. The basis of the ‘gutty’ was not the natural rubber of today but gutta-percha, the latex produced by trees of the genus Palaquium, from the family Sapotaceae. Unlike the elastic natural rubber, gutta-percha is malleable when heated and retains its shape when cooled.
“As a result it has been useful for a wealth of objects both ornamental and utilitarian – from the aforementioned plimsoll to dental filler and jewellery. However, probably the greatest impact on the modern world has been as the basis for under-sea telegraph cables laid from 1857 to allow intercontinental telecommunications and, more recently, the internet.
Other members of the Spapotaceae family featuring in the exhibition range from Shea butter from the Vitellaria paradoxa tree to Argan oil from kernels of the argan tree, endemic to Morocco and miracle berry – Synsepalum dulcificum – the fruit that, when eaten, causes sour foods such as lemons and limes to taste sweet. Interactive piece include an invitation to try your hand at Morse code.