World leading scientists invite us all to celebrate the wonder of plants at family fun day
Scientists from The James Hutton Institute and University of Dundee Division of Plant Sciences will be showcasing some of its pioneering science at Plant Power Day this Saturday, 18th May in Dundee Botanic Garden.
Encouraging as many people as possible to celebrate the wonder of plants and to recognise their immense importance in our lives and the broader environment.
Visitors will have the chance to take part in a range of fun experiments ranging from extracting DNA from raspberries to using gel and electricity to separate biological molecules, and will have a chance to learn about techniques we are using to develop crops that are more robust and resilient to climate change, pest and disease.
One of the scientists who will be there is Dr. Gabriela Toledo-Ortiz from The James Hutton Institute who is planning on holding a series of games aimed at identifying the origin of some of the common crops in our diets which hopefully hold the secret to more robust crops in the future. She explains more: “A large number of plants and animals moved between Europe and the Americas following the voyages of people like Christopher Columbus and although this all happened several hundred years ago, these exchanges have shaped the crops that we produce and eat now.
“As a result of the challenges now posed by climate change on global agriculture, we can expect a new ‘wave’ of exchanges as we now need to look to those countries where these crops originated from and re-evaluate whether ancestral varieties have traits that can be used to increase resilience of modern crops. One of the games we will be running this Saturday is to identify the origin of common crops and in particular, what do our ancestral tomatoes look like and where do they grow? I can promise you, some of them are quite different to what we find in the shops now.”
Plant Power Day runs from 11-4pm, is free to attend and is one of hundreds events being held globally as part of Fascination of Plants Day, which is organised under the umbrella of the European Plant Science Organisation (EPSO) and the Global Plant Council, with the aim of showing how critical plant science is to the social, environmental and economic landscape now and in the future.
For further information on the Dundee event, please go to: Plant Power Day, 18th May 2024, 11am – 4pm Dundee Botanic Garden Tickets, Sat 18 May 2024 at 11:00 | Eventbrite
Scientists from the Institute will also be in attendance in Aberdeen, as part of Fascination of Plants Day, celebrating Fabulous Forests. Get hands on with the help of Hutton scientists, to explore the huge range of biodiversity that depends on our native tree species, the benefits that we derive from forests and some of the threats that they face.
For more information on the Aberdeen event visit: https://www.abdn.ac.uk/about/campus/fascination-of-plants/
Press and media enquiries:
Sharon Simpson, Director Communications, Sharon.simpson@hutton.ac.uk. M: 07857 528757.