Item 5 - Sample Material from Chelsea Physic Garden

140 dried plant material

approx. 140 pressed Pelargonium material from Chelsea Physic Garden.
Possibly associated with M. Gibby's research there on Pelargoinums in the 1970s.

They all have collection numbers and species names.

[From Chelsea Physic Garden Social Media Post 12 March 2024]

Professor Mary Gibby, OBE is a renowned botanist. In the 1970s Mary was based at Chelsea Physic Garden whilst carrying out research for the Natural History Museum using our Pelargonium collection. Professor Mary Gibby used the Pelargoniums to investigate into plant chromosomes - the structures that carry DNA in the nucleus of every living cell.

Mary discovered that different varieties of Pelargonium had different numbers and sizes of chromosomes. This helped her find out which plants were related to each other, and she discovered that Pelargoniums fell into two groups. She also found out that you could only cross (create hybrids from) Pelargonium species from the same group.

Chelsea Physic Garden’s collection of Pelargoniums was started by one of our gardeners, Virginia Nightingale, and Mary Gibby expanded the collection to over 100 species.

After the recent Glasshouse Restoration Project, we added 28 new Pelargoniums to the Pelargonium Glasshouse, 17 of which have never been in the collection before.

Created: April 2026, C. Kemnitz

• inglês

• latim

NHM (Dr Jovita C. Yesilyurt) has been contacted about the specimens. They already have some material incorporated already. They would be interested in taking a look at the specimens to to assess them and decide what to keep (Material Transfer Agreement will need filling in and signing). The material would need to be sent to NHM for review. What they don't want could be offered to other institutions (e.g. Chelsea Physic Garden?).

It has been decided for now to keep the material until the collection numbers in Mary's papers/notebooks can be recorded and compared to the CPG material. If the material doesn't match data in Mary's archive then NHM can be contacted again and arrangements made to send them the material for review. [APRIL 2026]