Secrets of the Garden

Every year nearly two million visitors flock to the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and Kew’s Wild Botanic Garden in Sussex, Wakehurst, making the gardens one of the premier attractions in the United Kingdom. A UNESCO World Heritage Site, Kew has been drawing plant lovers from far and wide for 260 years and looks poised to continue its distinguished career as an ark of beauty and biodiversity. Home to more than 30,000 different plant and seed species from around the globe, it boasts the most diverse living plant collection in the world. Kew continues its mission of conserving Earth’s flora and unleashing the power of plants.

Among its 300 acres of expertly tended grounds, Kew boasts several key attractions. The Arboretum is a living library of more than 14,000 trees, representing more than 2,000 species. Many of the trees date from the 18^th century; some cannot be found anywhere else in Britain. The Palm House recreates a rainforest in a spectacular glass-and-iron structure built in 1844 to house tropical plants brought back by Victorian explorers. Many of the plants in this collection are endangered, and some are even extinct. Scientists use the collection to conduct medical research. The Temperate House, opened in 1863, is the world’s largest surviving Victorian glasshouse. Twice the size of the Palm House, this building contains an internationally important compendium of temperate zone plants.

The Herbarium at Kew features a staggering 7.4 million plant samples from every geographical region of the world. That includes 75 percent of all known species from 115 countries. A vital center for researchers and students, the Herbarium helps botanists classify plants, thus aiding botanical conservation. Kew’s Herbarium is one of the largest and most representative in the world. It holds 330 specimens collected by Charles Darwin in the 1800s, and some 30,000 new samples are added to the collection every year. This and other leading herbaria likely hold the key to the very survival of humanity.

As an insurance policy against plant extinction in the wild, the Millennium Seed Bank (MSB) harbors more than two billion seeds. This long-term, low-cost backup plan insures against threats to plants from climate change, pollution, habitat loss, and invasives. Plants provide us with food, building materials, fibers for clothing, medicines, and fuel, making their preservation essential. A kind of reserve currency for plants, the seed bank is an efficient way to store species since seeds are small and undergo a period of dormancy. The MSB’s goal is to conserve as many important wild plant species as possible.

The 300-plus scientists and botanists who work at Kew are attempting to answer questions about plant evolution, diversity, and conservation. The astounding variety of Earth’s plant life, much of it displayed at Kew, offers scientists a rich palette for their work. With their expertise in plant chemistry, they identify which plants can be used to support human well-being and sustainable livelihoods. Kew scientists continue to identify some 200 new plant species per year, or about 10 percent of the new plant species found globally every year.

Kew’s mission is to serve as the global resource for plant and fungal knowledge. To that end, its state-of-the-art research and verification technology offer the tools needed by the world’s top botanists. The combination of research, collections, and partnerships is contributing solutions to some of the most important issues facing our planet. Plants of the World Online (POWO) is a new portal aimed at digitizing and sharing floral data so that it can be accessed anywhere by anyone. The catalog of plant names, descriptions, and images will help inform decisions about conservation, land use, and policies and practices. By 2020, Kew is aiming for POWO to provide access to information on all the world’s known seed-bearing plants.

The work of Kew researchers helps authenticate naturally derived ingredients, such as histidine, which can be found in Herbal Essences bio:renew products. Kew’s plants don’t just grow in their gardens; Kew research is deeply connected to the outside world, where botanicals grow free and wild. But the variability of nature’s garden means that Kew’s research is vital in ensuring quality ingredients for consumers.

An endorsement by Kew is a big deal to consumers. Kew has endorsed the botanicals in every bottle of Herbal Essences bio:renew products like Coconut, White Grapefruit & Mosa Mint, Passion Flower & Rice, Aloe, Argan Oil, Rosemary & Herbs, Arabic Coffee Fruit and Birch Bark Extract. Kew scientists have used their extensive collections of plants, as well as their knowledge of these plants’ ingredients, to confirm the identity of each of the species used in these products. Knowing the unique botanical fingerprint of each ingredient means only quality botanicals are accepted for use in every bottle of Herbal Essences bio:renew.

As partners, Herbal Essences and Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew celebrate the beauty and diversity of the plant kingdom. They believe that plants can lift the spirits and fill the senses with beauty and wonder. From the enlivening fragrance of coconut milk in the shower to the refreshing whiff of mint in the air, the partnership is working towards a recognition that true hair health can be delivered through naturally derived real botanical, and that plants hold the key to our future.

Watch the full documentary Secrets of the Garden online now or any time On Demand.