Scientists at Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew, London, have developed a new space in the grounds called a “carbon garden”. It is filled with plants chosen to survive the hotter, stormier, more drought-prone climate that scientists predict we will see in coming decades.
Many of its 6,500 new plants and 35 trees are drawn from the Mediterranean, South Africa and California; others are native species that are coping well with hotter temperatures.
“A lot of this is experimental,” said Richard Wilford, head of garden design at Kew Gardens. “We’ll see what survives and what doesn’t. By 2050, we think we’ll have the climate of Barcelona in London. That may sound lovely, but actually it means there are a lot of things to deal with - more droughts, more heatwaves, more storms. What we can do in our garden is try to plant things that will cope with that heat and drought better.”
Stalker noticed that the pavilion shade area in the garden is unequivocally fungal in shape and stature.
