Green-fingered Prince looks for tips at Kew

THE PRINCE of Wales had to take shelter under an umbrella but vowed to return to Kew Gardens’ star border attraction for inspiration for his own.

Charles did not let a downpour spoil his visit to the Great Broad Walk Borders – believed to be the world’s longest double herbaceous borders.

The heir to the throne’s visit came ahead of the launch of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew’s State Of The World’s Plants report.

Out today it reveals that more than 1,700 new plants have been discovered in the past year, including species that could help provide food in the future.

Among them are five new types of manihot, from Brazil, wild relatives of cassava, which could help develop varieties of the third-most important food crop in the tropics and nine new species of climbing vine Mucuna, which is used in the treatment of Parkinson’s disease.

Professor Kathy Willis, director of science at Kew, said the discovery of wild relatives to foods was important because crops had been bred for high yields and had often lost their genetic diversity and resilience to drought and pests. She said: “Crop wild relatives might not have the yields, but they have survived thousands of years in multiple climate conditions and, in their genomes, they have the genes that will enable resilience.

“We need to be able to take these genes and breed these genes back into our crops to make resilient crops in the future.”

Prof Willis said many people still did not see plants as the most important thing “underpinning all aspects of life on Earth and human well-being”.

He added that the report, which was now in its second year, was “the first small step in the process of raising the profile of plants so the world at large really does start to understand their significance”.