A Tale of Two Plants...

Dublin Zoo grows many plants, some of which come from areas of the world that do not have such cold winters!

This Farfugium japonicum giganteum (sorry, no common name) is evergreen, some of the leaves in the picture to the right are 4 years old, which is unusual for a plant that is herbaceous - most plants like this die down each winter to escape the cold.

The frost before Christmas made it collapse - frozen cells cannot be turgid, hence the stems fall down.

Only time will tell how much damage it has suffered, and how much it will grow this summer.

Another interesting plant that you will see around the Zoo is Echium pininana.

Dublin Zoo has grown these great plants for years. Echium pininana is a Giant Bugloss, from the Canary Islands and grows over 2 to 3 years to be 4 metres tall when it flowers, after which it dies.
We use it a lot and love it for its massive leaves and blue towers of flowers in summer.

However it doesn't like our cold winters - it looks hunched up to keep out of the cold. Most will recover, and flower next year, but some, especially small ones, will die.

In a way we are encouraging evolution - the hardiest plants survive, so they should hopefully have hardier ofspring!

Echium pininana is endangered in its native Canary Islands, and althoug almost a weed in California, parts of the UK, and parts of Ireland, all those populations are genetically weak, and not a lot of use as a conservation tool.

(I must apologise for the layout, I have been battling with this post for a week now and it won't come right).

All That Glitters is Not Gold...

Dublin Zoo has introduced a sparkling new method to monitor our rhinos.

As we plan to breed from two of our female white rhinos we need to keep a check on the hormone levels of Ashanti and Zanta. The easiest way to do this is via faecal samples.

The faeces are collected twice weekly and sent to the lab for hormone testing. However, because the young females are kept together it has proven impossible to tell their droppings apart.

That was until somebody had a sparkling idea.

The keepers came up with a novel technique that involves adding different coloured glitter, namely silver and blue, to the rhinos’ feed.

The colourful result is an effective identification method to test with certainty the hormone levels of the rhinos.

The keepers at Dublin Zoo are delighted with the results and early indications are that Ashanti may be pregnant.

The Zoo vet, John Bainbridge has been closely monitoring the project. He had this to say: “This is a nice simple, harmless way of getting the results we need. When the faecal samples are collected with the different colour glitter, it’s clear which sample belongs to Ashanti and which sample belongs to Zanta. The glitter is a safe, non toxic method of testing the hormone levels in the rhinos”.

Dublin Zoo has sent a sample of Ashanti’s droppings

to a laboratory for testing and expects results early in the New Year.

Helen Clarke, Team Leader over the African Plains said:

“We are really hoping Ashanti is pregnant. In order to gain good information on the hormone levels we needed to take samples each week over a three month period. We were struggling until we had this idea and are so pleased that it seems to be working. It’s an ideal way of getting good samples without separating the rhinos or worse still - following them round all day with a shovel! ”

Dublin Zoo Gains National Collection Status for Libertia

Dublin Zoo has grown Libertia grandiflora for many years now, since we found that once established it is not eaten by our animals – even geese, which makes it very useful around our lake edges.

While researching the plant we found out that this species comes from New Zealand, which is a bird dominated habitat, so it makes sense that some of the plants there have evolved defences against browsing. We then realized that there were many more species, and even some cultivars of Libertia that might be as good as or even better than Libertia grandiflora, so we started collecting them.

After a few years of collecting, growing on, letting the plants flower, and growing more from seed, we applied to the National Council for the Conservation of Plants and Gardens ( http://www.nccpg.com/ ) for National Collecton Status, which was granted. The NCCPG coordinates over 600 collections around Ireland and Britain.

Libertia is an interesting genus, found in New Zealand, Australia, and Chile – a Gondwanic distribution that relates to the continents position millions of years ago.

Our current list of 22 taxa is as follows:

Libertia ‘Amaxing Grace’
Libertia breunioides
Libertia caerulescens
Libertia chilensis
Libertia cranwelliae
Libertia elegans
Libertia formosa
Libertia grandiflora
Libertia ixioides
Libertia grandiflora x ixioides hybrid
Libertia ixioides ‘Taupo Blaze’
Libertia ixioides ‘Taupo Sunset’

Libertia micrantha

Libertia moorea

Libertia paniculata

Libertia pergrinans

Libertia peregrinans 'Gold Leaf'

Libertia peregrinans 'Gold Stripe'

Libertia procera
Libertia pulchella

Libertia sessiliflora

Libertia tricolor