• A reference collection of living plants for research. 
• The largest collection of Traditional Chinese medicinal herbs in Europe and ongoing links with the Registry of Chinese Herbal Medicine.  
• A convenient field site for collecting a wide variety of species other than plants, for example aquatic invertebrates from the ponds, pollinators and as a field site for observing small mammal and birds. 
• Outreach opportunities for interacting with the general public, via for example the Pollination Festival or Fascination of Plants Day. 

Examples of past projects include: 

The reference collection of living plants was used by PhD student Nicholas Tew in Biological Sciences to measure the amount of sugar in the nectar in more than 200 plant species.  His  data was used to estimate and compare the nectar supply of urban landscapes, farmland and nature reserves (Tew et al 2022- Turnover in floral composition and nectar supply in gardens (PDF, 1,282kB)).        

Masters student Ellen Wright used the Botanic Gardens as one of several fieldsites for measuring the lifespan of a flower for c. 70 plant species and used to quantify seasonal changes and habitat differences in pollen availability (Wright et al. 2024 Quantifying the production of plant pollen at the farm scale (PDF, 1,385kB)).   

PhD student Michael Harrap studied the effect of temperature and humidity on plants and pollinators ( Harrap et al. 2017 (PDF, 2,165kB) and Harrap et al 2020 (PDF, 1,974kB)) 

If you are interested in using the Botanic Garden for research, please fill out the form Research application (Office document, 49kB) and email it to sci-director-botanic-gardens@bristol.ac.uk.