The society banned plants ‘removed from habitat’ from its shows – causing uproar from enthusiasts

A furious row has blown up in the UK’s leading succulent society over the practice of taking desirable specimens from the wild , with the chair now resigning in protest over the behaviour of his fellow enthusiasts.

Succulents haverisen in popularity in the last few years; they’re attractive and also have a hardy nature. In the UK a succulent won the Royal Horticultural Society plant of the year award in 2022, while the plants have also become wildly popular in Asian countries, leading to a massive boom in demand.

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Indigenous groups see hope in the environmentally friendly process of bioremediation. But will cities pay attention?

It almost looked like a garden. In Taylor Yard, a former railyard near downtown Los Angeles, volunteers knelt down to tend to scrubby plants growing in neat rows under the sweltering sun.

But beneath the concrete of the 60-acre site overlooking the Los Angeles River, the soils were soaked with an assortment of hazardous heavy metals and petrochemicals like lead, cadmium, diesel, and benzene. As the volunteers worked to dig up entire plants for closer study – some with roots nearly 12ft deep – they wore protective gear and carefully avoided inhaling or touching the toxic soil. Even a brief exposure to the contaminants could cause serious health consequences.

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Leaders have failed to tackle invasion of sargassum, which may have a bumper year in 2024

Schools evacuated due to toxic gas. Smelly tap water at home. Tourist operators and fishers struggling to stay in business. Job losses. Power outages affecting tens of thousands of people at a time. Dangerous health problems. Even lives lost.

Such crises were some of the consequences of sargassum seaweed in the islands of the Caribbean in 2023, which have become common in the region since 2011, when massive blooms began inundating the shorelines in the spring and summer months.

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A 2018 study found people who ate a variety of plant foods, like fruits, vegetables and whole grains, had better gut health – so I gave it a go

That we’re supposed to be eating our vegetables is a piece of health wisdom so universally acknowledged that most of the time, we barely think about it. Since 1991, the dominant US public health message on the subject has been to “eat your five a day”, which means eat either five fruits and vegetables, or five servings of fruits and vegetables – start asking the people around you, and I think you’ll find nobody really knows.

The call for “five a day” (that’s cup-size servings, by the way) hasn’t quite panned out; the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report that only one in 10 American adults are fulfilling their quota. Perhaps a new, more elaborate measure will help? In 2018, the British and American Gut Project, run by the University of California San Diego in the US, and Dr Tim Spector of King’s College London in the UK, offered a new message: instead of “eat five a day”, they started saying “eat 30 plants a week.”

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Warmer weather means the invasive plant, which can cost thousands to eradicate and even cause house sales to collapse, is appearing much earlier in the year

Homeowners are being urged to be extra vigilant of Japanese knotweed growing on their properties after the invasive species emerged six weeks earlier than usual this year following unusually warm weather.

The distinctive red stems were spotted throughout February and March, a development which has been linked to climate change.

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Natural England-backed scheme at most southerly tip of UK will nurture lichens, liverworts and wildflowers

The landscape at the most southerly tip of mainland Britain is expansive and grand: rolling heath and grasslands, spectacular cliffs, crashing waves.

But a recovery project funded by Natural England is focusing on unique and vital “microhabitats” found in sometimes overlooked spots on the Lizard peninsula in Cornwall.

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Poet laureate produces 10 poems, haiku and a musical EP, working with National Trust as it renews its blossom campaign

He imagines blossom as fancy dress, as an artist or a magician lighting up countryside, town and city. Yes, it is a thing of beauty and joy but also, sometimes, a pertinent reminder of changing climate patterns.

On World Poetry Day and to celebrate spring, the poet laureate, Simon Armitage , has launched a collection celebrating the bright blossom that sweeps through the UK at this time of year.

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Specimens collected on Voyage of the Beagle have been in Cambridge University archive for nearly 200 years

Plant specimens collected by Charles Darwin on the voyage of the Beagle have been found in an archive at Cambridge University.

The rare specimens, which have been stored in the archives of the Cambridge University herbarium for nearly 200 years, were given by Darwin to his teacher and friend Prof John Stevens Henslow, the founder of Cambridge University Botanic Garden.

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Also known as barba di frate, or monk’s beard, this leafy green will thrive with some TLC and is delicious raw or cooked

Native to the Mediterranean basin, agretti ( Salsola soda ) is a crop particularly beloved by Italians, who both forage for and cultivate it. Yet the needle-like leaves (similar to chives) of this vegetable –also known as saltwort or monk’s beard (from the Italian barba di frate ) – remain a rare sight on British menus.

Its succulent leaves – which taste savoury and a touch bitter, with a hint of brininess – may not be to everyone’s taste, but it is worth giving it a go – for the challenge of successfully cultivating a somewhat tricky plant.

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