Professor Dave Berger recently visited two iconic Botanical research institutions in the UK. 

Rothamsted Research, north of London, is the site of the Broadbalk long-term nutrition wheat trial. It is the longest running agricultural experiment of all time, first planted in 1843.  The wheat was almost ready for harvest so the contrast between fertilizer treatments was clearly evident. This visit gave useful insights for re-imagining the 1939 long-term wheat and maize field trial at Innovation Africa @UP. Manager of the experiments, Dr Andy Gregory, also described the other trials on site, namely the regenerative agriculture experiments which are a complex set of crop rotations, and the Park Grass experiment. This is an ecological experiment where a hay meadow has received different fertilizer regimes since 1856. One major finding was that over-fertilization reduces the number of species (biodiversity) dramatically.  Dave also met with collaborator Dr Cara Griffiths on a climate change project and had the pleasant surprise of catching up with former FABIan Dr Anneke Nel (née Prins) who has a position at Rothamsted.

Dave also had an exciting visit to Royal Botanical Gardens Kew where he was hosted by Lizo Masters, a former MSc student in the Department of Plant and Soil Sciences at UP. Lizo is now wrapping up his PhD at Kew on grass systematics.  Dave’s visit was focused on the ongoing Greyia genomics project at UP. He met with Kew plant scientists, and toured the historic Kew herbarium. There, they hunted down the Type specimens of the three Greyia species, the first one described in 1849.  The temperate house at Kew features South African plants including a flourishing shrub of Greyia sutherlandii.