The Gardens continue to be involved in the forefront of understanding global and national plant biodiversity. Each year about 2000 new species of plant are discovered and named.
Last year, Matthew Jebb, along with his colleague Hajo Esser from Munich, described the new species Schefflera poomae (right) from Thailand. The species is named in honour of a Thai colleague, Dr Rachun Pooma with whom Matthew collected in 1994.
The species appears to be restricted to a small, but spectacular area of mountainous limestone in Umphang Wildlife Sanctuary in Tak Province of Thailand (below).
