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Shelley O’Berg completed an RHS Diploma Level 4 in Horticultural Practice in summer 2017 and left Wisley bound for Ascension Island. There she studied the endemic flora and feels she’s really benefitted from seeing plants in their natural environment. You can read her report on the visit, on which she also stopped at St Helena.

A rare and vulnerable Cretan endemic has been named Bellevalia Juliana for MPG member Julia Jones. She found it one wet, blustery March morning ten years ago when walking in the hills around her home in Pano Elounda, Crete. It has been researched by Pepi Bareka, Nick Turland and Georgia Kamari who published their findings in July 2015. It is in the family Asparagaceae and from DNA testing has been proved a new species for east Crete.  Julia describes it as unassuming but beautiful and says she is so grateful to the botanists who worked to get this new endemic recognised and is still slightly overwhelmed that they named it for her. Bellevalia Juliana image courtesy of Steve Lenton.