Henk van der Werff, World expert in the laurel familiy, one of the most common and hardest to identify families of trees in the lowland tropics. He is surrounded by some of Kew’s best botanists keen for tips on how to identify this difficult group. Click for a clip of Henk introducing the family.
There are about 350,000 species of vascular plants, most of which are found in the Tropics. These are divided amongst about 300 families of varying sizes, from a single species to 21,000 species (orchids). Plants provide most of our food, clothes, building materials and are the source of most medicines. Ironically they are also the source of fossil fuels. The current changing climate and massive destruction of natural habitats makes our ability to manage and use this resource sustainably critical for the maintenance of our current lifestyles and quality of life. Key to this is…
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Kew's Latin America Blog 