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2016
Eight trees subject to global conservation programmes are the focus of a new work that acknowledges the heritage of the New Museums Site as the original Cambridge Botanic Garden from 1762 to 1846.
Working with the extensive international network of the Cambridge Conservation Initiative partners and associates, seeds have been collected from six genera of the eight nominated trees. This has been dependent on relationships being created with a network of over twenty organisations working globally, to secure seed stock and research fieldwork into local ecologies and threatened species.
With the support and expertise of Cambridge University Botanic Garden five tree saplings have been successfully nurtured with the remaining trees subject to ongoing international negotiations and permissions to secure seed.
The Museum of Zoology houses nearly 14 tons of specimens held in alcohol, the so-called ‘spirit collection’. The artists spent many weeks researching the catalogues to find specimens that had a connection with each tree species or biome where the tree grows.
Fifteen ‘spirits’ were selected and photographed. Creatures, many of who were collected at the turn of the 19th century and held in suspension, present compelling and arresting portraits at odds with the life force of the trees they once inhabited, alighted on, or scurried by. The work juxtaposes and explores the preservation of the museum’s historical specimens with the growing dynamics of contemporary field conservation and protection of bio-diversity.
The legacy of this project will see one tree from each species being taken into permanent collection of the Cambridge University Botanic Garden.
Related trees |
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Range |
West and Central Africa |
Description ......... Wet - Whole specimen (in spirit)
Acquisition .......... Dobson, G.E. ....... Date: 06.08.1879 ?
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Red List status |
Not assessed |
Related spirits |
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Range |
E Africa |
Aromatic resin collected from the Frankincense tree is in worldwide demand for the cosmetic industry. Civil war in Somalia has turned attention away from…
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Related trees |
Bibhitaki · Coffin Tree · Cork Oak · Frankincense · Ironwood · Lesser Whitebeam |
Range |
Eurasia and Africa |
Description ......... Wet - Whole specimen (in spirit)
Acquisition .......... High, J. ....... Date: [No data]
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Red List status |
Vulnerable |
Related spirits |
Common Blackbird · Common Cuckoo · Greater Horseshoe Bat · Pygmy Shrew |
Range |
Wales |
Framed by the dramatic limestone cliff of Craig-Y-Cilau in Wales, grow some of the most rare trees in Britain. The lesser or least whitebeam…
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Red List status |
Least concern |
Related spirits |
Common Blackbird · Common Cuckoo · Greater Horseshoe Bat · Pygmy Shrew |
Range |
N Africa and S Europe |
When stripped every ten years of its dense bark, the trunk of the Cork Oak glows amber, slowly changing from gold to rust red…
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Red List status |
Vulnerable |
Related spirits |
Brown-hawk Owl · Chinese Pangolin · Common Blackbird · Common Cuckoo · Greater Horseshoe Bat |
Range |
China, Myanmar, Taiwan and Vietnam |
The dramatic limestone escarpments of North Vietnam drew us to the evocatively named “Coffin tree”. Growing up to 50m high and 3 metres across,…
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Related trees |
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Range |
Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand |
Description ......... Wet; Female - Whole specimen (in spirit)
Acquisition .......... Hose, C. ....... Date: [No data]
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Related trees |
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Range |
Sulawesi and nearby islands, Indonesia |
Description ......... Wet; Male - Whole specimen (mounted in spirit)
Acquisition ......... Hose, C. ......... Date: [No data]
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Red List status |
Vulnerable |
Related spirits |
Brown-hawk Owl · Common Cuckoo · Greater Horseshoe Bat · Greater Slow Loris · Hose's Langur · Spectral Tarsier |
Range |
Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia and Philippines |
What is remarkable about this tree is how slow growing it is, up to 0.5cm a year, yet if protected can reach up to…
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Related trees |
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Range |
Brunei, Indonesia and Malaysia |
Description ......... Wet; Male; Embryo - Whole specimen (in spirit)
Acquisition .......... Hose, C. ....... Date: [No data]
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Related trees |
Bibhitaki · Coffin Tree · Ironwood · |
Range |
India, SE Asia |
Description ......... Wet - Whole specimen (in spirit)
Acquisition .......... Hose, C. ....... Date: [No data]
More information
Red List status |
Not assessed |
Related spirits |
Bengal Monitor Lizard · Brown-hawk Owl · Common Blackbird · Common Cuckoo · Greater Slow Loris · Hose's Langur · Spectral Tarsier |
Range |
India and Southeast Asia |
A swift-growing giant canopy tree found mainly in the forests of North Western Ghats in India and throughout SE Asia, the Bibhitaki was brought…
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Related trees |
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Range |
South central Asia and Southeast Asia |
Description ......... Wet - Whole specimens (in spirit)
Acquisition .......... "Hodgson" ....... Date: [No data]
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Red List status |
Endangered |
Related spirits |
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Range |
Madagascar |
A wondrous tree, when David Gill of Global Trees Campaign told us it was endangered we decided that it should definitely be one of…
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Red List status |
Endangered |
Related spirits |
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Range |
Chile and southwestern Argentina |
A tree entwined with childhood memories (how could a monkey ever climb those branches?) In our hometown of Dorking there are quite a few…
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