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State of the World’s Plants Symposium
“The Threat to Trees in Cultivation”
Tony Kirkham - Head of Arboretum, Gardens and Horticultural Services
Kew Gardens - 300 acres - started in 1759 by HRH
The Dowager Princess of Wales, Princess Augusta
Pagoda tree 1762
Styphnolobium japonicum
Deforestation
Sapphire Dragon tree
Paulownia kawakamii
Taiwan 1992
Humankind (Construction workers)
Building & development
Weather & Climatic conditions
The British Isles
4.41 am
16 October 1987
> 700 trees lost in one night including – the Caucasian elm Zelkova carpinifolia 1762 “Old Lion”
The Aftermath took 3 years to clear & was the start of a new
fieldwork programme & re-planting strategy across the arboretum
Hurricane Jude 2013
Snow damage
Winter cold
Drought
The plant collectors
Ernest Henry Wilson
1899 to 1917
Pan-lan-shan Valley, 22 June 1908
Balang shan, June 2006
Catalpa fargesii WILS 640 - 1908
Grafting bench used to speed up callus production
Catalpa fargesii WILS 640
Arboretum laid out according to the Bentham and
Hooker system in family order
Vector
Elm bark
beetle
Scolytus scolytus
©Udo Schmidt
Dutch Elm Disease
Ophiostoma ulmi 1960/70’s
Bleeding canker
2004
Pseudomonas syringae of horse chestnut
Horse Chestnut
Leaf Miner
Horse Chestnut Leaf Miner
Cameraria ohridella
2002
Plant movement in the landscape industry without quarantine
Oak Processionary Moth - (OPM)
Thaumetapoea processionea
2006
2012
American Ash Fraxinus americana
Threats not with us
Emerald Ash Borer
Agrilus planipennis
Untreated Packing materials
Pine Processionary Moth
Thaumetopoea pityocampa
© www.uvm.edu
Asian Longhorn
Beetle Anoplophora glabripennis
©invasive.org
Citrus Longhorn Beetle Anoplophora chinensis
Staff training &
development
Keeping abreast of
new techniques and
developments
Thank you