Plants and Fungi Gallery

Ananas champaca, ornamental pineapple

Ornamental pineapple, Ananas comosus Champaca, at RBG Kew. The ornamental pineapple is not edible. Part of the Bromeliad plant family native to Tropical America it has swordlike spiny green leaves, held in a dense rosette, with the fruit held in the centre on a sturdy stalk

© RBG Kew/Andrew McRobb

Ananas Champaca, Bromeliad, Ornamental, Pineapple, Plant Portrait, Plants

Medusagyne oppositifolia

Medusagyne oppositifolia. Medusagyne oppositifolia, the jellyfish tree, is a critically endangered tree endemic to the island of Mah?, the Seychelles. It is the only member of the Medusagyne genus of the Ochnaceae family of tropical trees and shrubs. The plant gets its common name from the distinctive jellyfish-like shape of its dehisced fruit

© RBG Kew/John Dransfield

Cyttaria darwinii or Darwin fungus

Darwin's fungus at Kew. Original material of C. darwinii collected by Charles Darwin in Tierra del Fuego during his voyage on HMS Beagle in 1832. This, as well as collections of other Cyttaria species from throughout their range, are preserved in the Kew Mycology Herbarium. Cyttaria are southern hemisphere fungi and do not occur in Britain, although various Nothofagus species are grown in the Gardens

© RBG Kew